


The Owl Hearts

by RogrTheShield



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games), The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:07:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 89,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25888582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RogrTheShield/pseuds/RogrTheShield
Summary: Sora, Donald, and Goofy find themselves in The Boiling Isles, where they meet several inhabitants in need of their help. But, maybe these strange witches can help them instead.
Comments: 36
Kudos: 53





	1. A Strange Vendor

**Author's Note:**

> Context: This fanfiction takes place after the events of Kingdom Hearts 3. In this story, Sora has returned from The Final World and everything has returned back to normal now that the Guardians of Light are all back together and the threat of something happening to both Kingdom Hearts and the χ-Blade are gone (except for Luxu, the Foretellers, and the Master of Masters). I do not currently have a story about how Sora returned, and let’s be honest, we all know it’ll take about 5-10 years for Nomura to release enough games for that plot event to take place along with many other important events taking place alongside Sora’s return. Regardless, Sora, Donald, and Goofy are off on the Gummiship to visit another world, and The Boiling Isles might just be the strangest world they have visited so far.

The Gummiship was soaring through the emptiness of space as it closed in on another new world. Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked towards the new world with excitement and anticipation.

“We’re nearly there fellas!” Goofy shouted as they drifted closer to the mysterious world.

“What kind of a world do you think this is, Sora?” Donald asked.

“I don’t know, but I hope it’s a very lively place!” Sora said, practically shaking.

Donald took note of Sora’s more-than-average excitement and was shocked. “Why are you so excited to visit this world?”

“All of the Guardians of Light have been working hard to revive worlds that have fallen into both the Realm of Darkness and the Sleeping Realm.” Sora explained. “This’ll be the first new world we visit since we stopped Xehanort!”

“Gawrsh, it really HAS been that long since we visited a world together! We better make up for lost time in this world then, fellas!” Goofy declared.

The Gummiship then entered the world’s sky. The only thing that was visible was an enormous skeleton within an endless ocean. Sora, Donald, and Goofy stared at the skeleton with both amazement and confusion.

“It reminds me of Destiny Island and The Final World, but… somehow even more hopeless...” Sora said defeatedly.

“What’s with this giant skeleton? I thought this world was saved from the Realm of Darkness.” Donald said frustratedly.

“Do ya really think this is even a world?” Goofy wondered. “It looks like it’s just floating around here in space.”

“What about Monstro?” Donald pointed out.

“At least Monstro was still alive, but this... this isn’t like any of the worlds we’ve visited or any world the Guardians of Light have visited.” Sora said with a depressed tone.

“Why don’t we take a closer look then?” Goofy suggested. “Maybe we can find out more about this world from this skeleton.”

Sora, Donald, and Goofy all nodded and brought the Gummiship closer. Upon closer inspection of the skeleton, there were many signs of life on it: forests, mountains, lakes, but most importantly of all: buildings. Sora, Donald, and Goofy quickly noticed the buildings and their hopes were raised instantly.

“Look over there, fellas! Buildings! And lots of them, too!” Goofy said pointing towards the rib cage.

“Maybe this skeleton really IS its own world!” Donald said with hope.

“C’mon, let's find a place to land the Gummiship and take a closer look!” Sora exclaimed, back to his regular cheerful self.

They began looking for a safe place to land the Gummiship without the fear of it being discovered and ruining the World Order. They passed around the island and found a large cliff, which looked like the perfect place to land. Just before they landed, they noticed there was a single building on the cliff.

“Uh… do ya really think this is a good place to land? What if someone there finds the Gummiship?” Goofy worried.

“You worry too much, Goofy. The building is all by itself; I doubt anyone goes there anymore.” Donald noticed.

“I’m sure it’ll be safe to land here. Let’s just be careful about keeping it hidden.” Sora reassured.

The Gummiship landed in a small forest nearby, just deep enough and well-hidden enough so they didn’t forget where they landed. The trees were spread out enough to land, making it look like nothing happened to the surroundings. They left the Gummiship and immediately noticed the smell of the land. The smell wasn’t as disgusting as it was when inside Monstro, but it certainly wasn’t as pleasant as every other world they have visited. Sora, Donald, and Goofy left the Gummiship covering their noses, but after a few minutes, they became accustomed to the odd stench of the land and stopped covering their noses. They did some stretches after being inside the Gummiship for so long and started walking towards that old building they saw when landing. They were hoping that the building was abandoned and could find information about this world.

After walking through the woods for a few minutes, they made it to the side of the house. There were two sections to the building: the first section was a simultaneously worn-down but maintained house. The stone and tiles that made up the house were old and damaged, and yet there were multiple stained-glass windows, including a giant one that looked like an eye at the front of the house, and the doors were made of sturdy wood. The second section of the building was the remnant of a tower. The tower was heavily damaged; multiple stone pieces were missing, it was slowly being covered in moss, and it looked like it could collapse at any moment.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy walked down a set of stairs and made their way to the front of the house. As they approached the front door, they noticed that there was a strange owl-like decoration with a blank expression on it.

“Wow… this building is much bigger now that we’re so close to it.” Sora stared in amazement.

“Do ya really think this place is abandoned?” Goofy asked cautiously.

“It’s fine, Goofy. Let’s just get inside and find out where we are.” Donald said as he approached the front door. Donald confidently grabbed the handle and pulled, but the door didn’t budge. Donald was shocked, so he pushed the handle. Again, the door didn’t budge. He continued to both push and pull the door multiple times with both hands, getting more and more aggressive each time. Still, the door didn’t budge. Eventually, he jumped onto the door and pulled against the handle with all of his strength, but he lost his grip and fell on his back. After all that effort, the door hadn’t budged.

“Aww… the door won’t move at all…” Donald sulked.

“Hey Sora, why don’t you use the Keyblade to just unlock the door?” Goofy suggested.

“Good idea, Goofy!” Sora said as he walked towards the center of the door.

Donald shot back onto his feet. “WHY DIDN’T WE START WITH THAT?!” He shouted angrily.

Sora summoned his Kingdom Key and pointed it at the handle of the door. The Keyblade started to glow white as its power began to grow. However, just as the Keyblade was at its brightest, the glow started to fade away until the Keyblade was back to normal. Everyone looked at the Keyblade in confusion; the only other time the Keyblade failed to unlock something was the incomplete Keyhole in Hollow Bastion. Sora aimed at the handle and tried to unlock it again, but the same exact thing happened. Sora unsummoned his Keyblade in disbelief. Why isn’t this working, they all thought. Sora went to get a closer look at the door, and found the problem almost immediately.

“Look closely at the handle.” Sora gestured. “The Keyblade can’t unlock the door because there’s no keyhole for it to unlock.”

“Gawrsh, that’s a bit odd. I’ve never seen a door without a keyhole before.” Goofy noted.

“Forget it, let’s just leave this place and find somewhere else to go!” Donald said, already on his way down the main road in front of the house.

“Let’s go check out the town then! Surely we can find information there.” Goofy said as he followed behind Donald.

“Yeah! I can’t wait to see what kind of a town it is!” Sora cheerfully said as he tried to catch up with Donald and Goofy. Before Sora caught up with them, he was stopped when he heard a strange noise. It sounded like an owl hooting, but almost as if it was laughing at them. Sora looked back at the house to see what caused the noise, but didn’t see either an owl or another person. Confused, Sora turned back around and ran to meet up with Donald and Goofy, and together the three of them went down the main road.

“Are you sure this is the right way towards the town?” Donald double checked.

“I’m pretty sure it is. Why else would there be a road here?” Goofy pointed out.

“Looks like the road goes on for quite a while…” Sora said squinting at the horizon. “We'd better move quickly if we want to get there anytime soon.”

They started to run across the hilly plains, following the road to hopefully reach the town. They saw many strange creatures that inhabited the plains, but thankfully they were never attacked by any creatures, and thankfully no Heartless. After running for quite a while, they spotted the buildings at the top of a hill. When they saw it, they were more excited than ever and ran even faster towards it. Finally, they reached the edge of town and entered.

They noticed immediately that the people inside the town were just as strange as the animals outside of town. Some had multiple arms and legs, some had extra eyes, some had viscous teeth, and some were the exact opposite.

“This might sound weird, but are you sure that we didn’t land by that monster factory again?” Sora asked as he stared at the monsters in confusion.

“You saw how we got to this world; you know this isn’t the same world!” Donald said, annoyed that Sora would even ask an obvious question.

“Besides, if we were in that monster world, we would look like monsters too because of the World Order.” Goofy pointed out. They all shuddered after remembering what they each looked like back in Monstropolis.

“But wait, why didn’t the World Order change us to fit this world? We don’t blend in at all!” Sora said as he looked down at his body, which he was still wearing his plaid outfit.

“Speak for yourself, Goofy, and I look just fine!” Donald said with a wide smirk.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine, Sora. There’s probably a good reason the World Order didn’t do anything to disguise us.” Goofy said confidently.

The trio made their way deeper into town to take in their surroundings. Whenever they passed someone, they always gave a confused and disgusted look at Sora. It made Sora feel really uncomfortable and subconscious about being out of place without the World Order giving him a disguise. He had never been looked at with hatred from so many people that he didn’t know how to react or even make them like him. To make himself feel better, he put up his hood to try and hide from the attention. Donald and Goofy noticed how uncomfortable Sora was here, so they each put a hand on Sora’s shoulder to help cheer him up. The support from his friends helped Sora relax a little, and gave a faint smile to Donald and Goofy.

They came across countless shops, each selling very different items. There were book shops, potion stores, pottery stores, blacksmiths, food vendors, and many more. There was one shop in particular that caused the trio to stop. It was unattended and full of strange items that they recognized from previous worlds they’ve visited, but what really got their attention was the sign. Written in large, red letters, it said, “HUMAN COLLECTIBLES”. The trio stared in confusion.

“Hey, where’s the store owner?” Goofy said looking around the unguarded merchandise.

“Maybe they’re collecting more human things now.” Donald said as he tried to peek between the gap in the tent flaps.

“But if they are, then where’s all this stuff coming from?” Sora asked as he took off his hood.

“Finally, you’re back.” A mysterious voice said from inside the tent. The trio quickly went back over to the front of the shop before someone came out.

Suddenly, the tent flaps opened up, and an old woman holding a wooden staff walked through. She was wearing a red dress with a gold brooch on it. She had two gold earrings and a green-and-yellow polka dotted headband on, as well as had a golden fang. Her hair was grey and massive, covering up most of her back. Immediately behind her was an owl carrying a bag. The owl dropped the bag at the front of the store and the strange lady rubbed her hand together in anticipation. However, she was too distracted to notice the trio standing in front of her shop.

“Now let’s see what we’ve got here.” She said with excitement. The owl opened up the bag and stood on top of the staff. The lady grabbed the head of the owl and spun it around the staff, and in doing so, the owl lost all signs of life and became part of the staff. The trio stared in fascination at the staff, and only then did the lady notice that they were there.

“Ah, potential customers!” She exclaimed as she threw her hands into the air. “You’ve got guts coming hereー mostly because it’s illegalー to learn about the mysteries, tragedies, and fascinations of the human world! Let me tell you, I have traveled there many times to learn about their bizarre history and brought back many relics about their strange way-of-life. You’ve come here to seek out my wisdom about this other world and the chance to obtain one of these artifacts for yourself, am I right?” She asked the trio with great confidence.

The trio was completely taken back by her enthusiasm and knowledge of another world existing. They tried to give a reply. “Uhh…” was the only thing they could nervously come up with.

“Great!” The lady cut them off. “You three are in for a once-in-a-lifetime experience! Once I restock with this latest haul, you’ll seeー and hopefully purchaseー some of the most terrifying and mind-blowing treasures from the human world!” She began to rummage through the bag, looking for items she believed were valuable. Sora began to sweat, as he was afraid that the lady would find out he was human.

The first item the lady pulled out of the bag was a weird screen that looked similar to the Gummiphone. Sora looked at the screen with fascination and wanted to compare it with his Gummiphone, but before he could ask about it, the lady shouted “Garbage!” and threw it away. The next item the lady pulled out of the bag was a ring with a giant diamond. Goofy thought it might have been a crystal that could be used to synthesize a new weapon, but before he could get a closer look at the crystal, the lady once again shouted “Garbage!” and threw it away as well. The next item the lady pulled out of the bag was a cup made completely out of gold. Donald’s eyes widened as he saw how shiny the cup was and wanted it for its worth, but before he could take it for himself, the lady once again shouted “Garbage!” and threw it away as well.

At this point, the trio shared glances of concern between each other. They were starting to doubt if this lady really knew anything about this other world and what was really valuable. They were about to speak up when she suddenly gasped, startling the trio.

“Now this…” The lady said as she dug deep into the bag. She pulled out a pair of glasses with eyes on them and put them on. Suddenly, the eyes popped out and bounced up and down because they were attached by springs. “This will make me rich!” The lady declared. The trio quietly laughed with each other at the sight of the eyes continuing to bounce. The lady noticed their laughter and leaned in closer to them.

“I see I’ve already caught your attention!” The lady said with a wide grin. “You see, humans have found a way to detach their eyes in order to see further ahead and even to prevent anything from seeking up on them. But just you three wait, you haven’t seen anything yet!” She reached back into the bag to see what else she could present (and possibly sell) to the trio.

The lady then pulled out a purple book with a picture taking up most of the cover with the title “The Good Witch Azura.”

“This…” The lady said as she closely studied the book. “Well, this’ll make good kindling.” She moved the book over a candle and started to burn the book. The trio stared, baffled by the lady’s choices. Why would she burn a book, they all thought. What if it had history about this other world? Why destroy it at all?

Before they could ask why the lady was burning the book, a young girl jumped out from the tent. She was wearing a purple-and-white hoodie, jean shorts, and leggings. She had short brown hair and had a shoulder bag with her.

“Excuse me, sorry, that’s mine, thank you!” She frantically shouted as she quickly snatched the book from the lady’s hand and shoved it into her bag. Then just as quickly as she came out of the tent, she ran back inside. The lady was just as shocked as the trio to see someone else come out of the tent. The lady gave chase after the young girl, but the trio stayed at the front of the store. They were able to share their thoughts now that they were alone.

“Should we really trust what this lady is saying?” Donald said skeptically as he looked at the pile of “garbage” she threw away earlier.

“I am so confused about this world…” Sora said as he held his head in his hand.

“Well, at least she never noticed that you’re also a human.” Goofy said as he put his hand on Sora’s shoulder.

“But why would she know about there being other worlds? That shouldn’t be possible, right?” Sora asked.

“Well, the people who were in Radiant Garden and Traverse Town know about other worlds because they were used as refugee worlds for those who lost their own world.” Donald recalled.

“Yeah! Maybe when this world fell to the Realm of Darkness, she found a similar world to stay in until we rescued this world.” Goofy suggested.

Their conversation was cut short when the lady came back to the tent. She was grabbing onto the young girl by her shoulder and pushed her into a stool in front of the counter. The young girl brought her knees up to her chest as she stared in fear at the old lady.

“I’m so sorry, I just wanted my book! If you’re going to eat my skin, just make it quick! Just do it now!” The young girl begged. The trio saw how terrified the young girl was and all stood in their fighting stance, but did not summon their weapons yet. They were ready to defend the young girl from any danger that could happen. The old lady didn’t even notice the trio’s defensive stance as she was completely focused on the young girl.

“Eat you? Why would I eat… a potential customer?!” The old lady said, completely changing her tone. Everyone looked at the old lady like she was insane, and rightfully so. The old lady finally noticed the trio’s defensive stance. “You three can knock off that tough act of yours; I’m not going to hurt anyone here. Besides, if I did want to hurt someone here, there’s no way you three would be able to match my power!” She laughed. The trio went back to standing normally, possibly more confused than ever, while the young girl looked at her with curiosity.

“But enough with the theatrics: it’s time for the merchandise!” The old lady said as she ducked behind the counter. First, she brought up a yellow shoe with many holes. “Can I offer you a human foot filled with holes?” She placed it on the counter and ducked underneath it again. Next, she pulled up a red-and-white tube with something green coming out of the top. “Maybe a bar of green human candy?” She placed it on the counter as well and ducked underneath it again. Now, she pulled up a white square with a black screen. “Oh, how about a black shadow box that reflects only sadness?”

The trio continued to stare in confusion, but the young girl only laughed. “That’s not all it can do. Here, let me see it.” She said as she took it from the old woman and began tinkering with it. The trio got a closer look at the shadow box and noticed the reflective black screen.

“Hey Sora, doesn’t that shadow box kind of look like the Gummiphone when it’s turned on?” Donald pointed out.

Sora pulled out his Gummiphone and looked at its screen, then the screen of the shadow box. “You’re right, it does look pretty similar to the Gummiphone!” He then turned on the Gummiphone, and the black reflective surface disappeared in exchange for the homepage.

“Say, do ya think this shadow box thing can turn on as well?” Goofy asked.

“Wow, I’m actually pretty surprised you three knew how this worked and not her!” The young lady said as she placed two cylinders inside the white box. The old lady exchanged a glare of anger towards the trio, and they could only give a nervous smile as a response. “And it’s not some sort of ‘shadow box’, it’s called a T.V.” She said as she turned it on. Suddenly, the black reflective surface as well, and what came on was a person on a stage with odd colored lines behind them. “Here, see for yourselves!”

All of a sudden, many monsters were surrounding the stand, all fascinated by the T.V. The trio and young girl got behind the counter as the monsters started waving money around and asking to buy it.

“What did you say your name was?” The old lady asked with a devious grin. The trio wanted to ask the same thing.

“I’m Luz! Luz Noceda.” The young girl answered in delight.

“Well Luz, that was pretty clever… for a human.” The old lady said as she started taking the monster’s money.

“Yeah Luz, that was really impressive!” Donald said, captivated.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Luz.” Goofy said, giving a little bow.

“Do they have more of these things where you’re from?” Sora asked with a giddy tone.

“That’s very kind of you two to say,” Luz said as she addressed Donald and Goofy, “but those are some weird things for other humans to say…” Luz as she addressed Sora and the old lady.

“I’m… uh…” Sora struggled to create an excuse. Thankfully, the old lady was the perfect distraction.

“Oh dear child…” she said as she removed her headband, revealing two pointed ears, “I’m not like you!” Luz and the trio stared at her pointed ears. The old lady jumped on top of the counter and began shouting. “I’m Eda the Owl Lady, THE most powerful witch on The Boiling Isles!”

“A witch!” Luz’s eyes began to sparkle at the sight of a magic user.

“Eda the Owl Lady.” Goofy said as he wondered how she got that name.

“The most powerful witch!” Donald said as he began fantasizing all the possible new spells he could learn.

“The Boiling Isles…” Sora said as he looked towards the sky and recalled how all worlds are connected.

“I am a respected, feared, …” Eda continued to go on about her power. Suddenly, three guards wearing black uniforms, white capes, and grey pointed masks pushed their way to the front of the crowd.

“Busted!” They shouted as one of the guards destroyed the T.V. The crowd dispersed in fear, leaving only Eda, Luz, and the trio. Eda jumped off of the counter and faced the guards.

“Eda the Owl Lady, you are wanted for misuse of magic and demonic misdemeanors!” The first guard said as he unrolled a piece of paper in his hand, revealing a wanted poster about Eda with a number so high that no one in the trio knew how to count.

“Whoa, witch criminal!” Luz gasped and stared in amazement, which the trio continued to look confused.

“You are hereby ordered to come with us to the Conformitorium!” The second guard demanded as he grabbed Eda’s wrist.

“Would you guys quit following me around?! I haven’t done squat!” Eda demanded as she pulled her wrist free.

“You four are coming too, for fraternizing with a criminal!” The third guard said as he grabbed Luz by her hood.

“Wh-what?! That’s not cool! I didn’t know she was a criminal!” Luz shouted as she tried to break free from the guard’s grasp, dropping her book in the process.

“Let her go!” Sora demanded as the trio got into their fighting stances, but kept their weapons unsummoned. “She hasn’t done anything wrong and doesn’t deserve to be taken away from here!”

“All right, all right, you win.” Eda said as she brought her hands up. “There’s no need for any violence here; I’ll go with you. Just let me get my stuff…” she said, ducking underneath the counter.

Suddenly, Eda grabbed her staff and struck the first guard across the face, knocking him on the ground. The third guard let go of Luz, as the remaining two guards each drew a white circle with their fingers, causing glowing white ropes to surround everyone individually. Eda reacted and drew a yellow circle, which caused a yellow, bubble-like barrier to form around her. The ropes were too sudden and fast for the trio to respond and ended up ensnared the trio and Luz, but Eda’s bubble stopped her from being ensnared. The first guard got back up and drew a circle with his finger as well, which created more ropes around Eda and tightened the grip on her bubble-like barrier.

Sora struggled greatly against the ropes to try and break free, but eventually stopped. He calmed down, closed his eyes, and summoned his Keyblade. Sora and his Keyblade began to glow with light as he continued concentrating. The three guards turned towards Sora to see what he was planning to do. Suddenly, Sora opened his eyes and the air around him began to get distorted, almost reflective.

“Try this!” Sora shouted. The distorted air shattered like glass as he broke free from the magical ropes. Sora stopped glowing to reveal his clothes had changed into a more comfortable, belt-clad outfit. Sora had entered Second Form. The guards were shocked, Eda and Luz stared in fascination, and Donald and Goofy nodded with approval.

The three guards got closer and tried to draw another circle with their fingers, but they were too slow. Sora twirled his Keyblade in front of him a few times before ending with both of his hands above his head. “Stun Impact!” He shouted as he threw his hands downwards, causing a field of electricity to surround him. The three guards were inside the field, and they all got struck by a strange lightning. All three guards became completely dazed and fell onto the ground, causing all the ropes to disappear. Luz went to pick up her book and Donald and Goofy ran over to Sora, but all Eda did was stare suspiciously at him.

“Good thinking Sora!” Goofy complimented. “That was pretty close.”

“Now let’s get out of here before more of them show up!” Donald said.

“Yeah, but… where exactly do we go?” Sora asked as his clothes reverted back to his plaid outfit.

Eda slammed her staff on the ground, causing everything at the shop to levitate. “Oops, can’t forget this.” She said as she reached into her hair and pulled out a key with a yellow eye in the center. She pressed the key, which presumably did something inside the tent. She then gathered everything into a green bag, tied it up, and stuck it onto the end of her staff. “Follow me, human!” She shouted as she began running. Luz frantically got up and followed Eda.

“Hey, why don’t we follow Miss Eda out of here?” Goofy suggested.

“Yeah! If she really is a criminal, then she’ll know a way out of here!” Donald pointed out.

“Alright, let’s follow them. I don’t want to wait around for more of those guards to show up…” Sora said. The trio began running after Eda and Luz to hopefully find a way out of the city.

“This is crazy! If I die here, my mom’s gonna kill me!” Luz began to panic.

“I won’t let them hurt you!” Eda laughed. “A human like you is much more valuable to me alive than dead.”

“Wait, what’s that supposed to-” Luz began to say, but was cut off. Eda grabbed Luz’s wrist and cheered as the owl’s wings on the staff opened up. Eda and Luz sat on the staff and they began flying away at a very fast speed, leaving the trio behind. They continued to chase after them, but they began to get farther and farther away.

“Gawrsh, not what do we do?!” Goofy asked.

“We’ll lose sight of them before we leave the city!” Donald said nervously.

“It’s not over yet, guys!” Sora said confidently. He extended his left arm behind him. “Ready for some Flowmotion?” They all nodded as Donald grabbed Sora’s hand and Goofy grabbed Donald’s other hand.

Together, they jumped onto the rooftops of the stands. Sora cast Blizzard, leaving a trail of ice for them to grind on with Flowmotion, which allowed them to move faster and close the gap between them and the flying witch. Sora continually cast Blizzard at an upward angle to gain vertical height. They were getting very close to Eda and Luz, but when Sora tried to cast Blizzard again, nothing happened. He looked back at Goofy and they both nodded. Goofy summoned his shield and threw it far forward. Then, Goofy got on Donald’s back, and Donald got on Sora’s back, and they let go of each other’s hands. Donald summoned his staff and cast Aero on Goofy’s shield, creating a strong gust of wind on it. When the ice trail reached its end, Sora jumped off the ice trail and landed on Goofy’s shield, which thanks to Aero, he was able to jump off of for one final push to reach the staff. As they were in the air, they got off of each other’s backs, unsummoned their weapons, and grabbed each other’s hands again. When they began falling, they were close enough to reach the staff, but chose not to land directly on it. Instead, Sora used the top of his Keyblade to hook onto the top of the staff, allowing the trio to hang onto the staff from underneath, swaying back and forth. However, the impact of the Keyblade hooking onto the staff caused it to dip downwards and descend at a rapid speed. Eda, unaware that the trio was hitching a ride, pulled up on the staff to try and gain more height. They almost ran into a building, but were able to dodge it at the last second as the staff gained just enough height to clear it. Finally, they exited the city and flew up high enough to prevent the guards from attacking them or running into something. The entire time they were escaping, Luz was screaming, completely terrified, as she held onto the staff like her life depended on it.

“What happened?! What’s going on?! Did we die?!” Luz panicked as tears began to appear in her eyes.

“Calm down human, everything’s fine!” Eda said, trying to calm her down. “We just escaped the city. We’ll be fine now.”

“What was that weird dip all of a sudden?! I thought we were going to crash and die…” Luz said, still crying.

“The guards must’ve tried and pulled us back down to the ground, but they obviously failed because they were up against me!” Eda said, boasting. She then saw how scared Luz was and felt bad about bragging. “Hey, it’s okay.” She said in a comforting tone. “You can open your eyes now, human.”

Luz began to stop crying and slowly opened her eyes. When she saw the ground soaring beneath her, she got scared again. She closed her eyes and accidentally began rotating around the staff. She quickly grabbed back on, now upside-down. When she opened her eyes again, she saw the trio hanging onto the staff from beneath. “You three again?! I thought you got left behind in that town!” She exclaimed with both confusion about how they’re here and comfort knowing they safely got away from the guards.

“What are you talking about, human?” Eda said annoyed, thinking she was still panicking. She was going to grab Luz to put back on top of the staff, but stopped when she noticed the Keyblade hooked onto the staff. “What the…” She mumbled. She looked underneath her staff to follow the Keyblade and found the trio hanging on underneath. They gave a nervous smile. “How did you three manage to get onto the staff?! Why are you three even following me in the first place?!” She shouted, completely shocked.

“It’s a bit of a long story…” Donald began, but got cut off.

“Well, if you’re not going to tell me, then there’s no point in you three staying here.” Eda said as she began to reach for the Keyblade to unhook it from her staff.

“No, stop! You can’t just drop them from this high up!” Luz pleaded.

“And why should I care about them?” Eda asked, annoyed.

“They helped save our lives from those guards!” Luz stated.

“So what? I was just about to take care of them by myself.” Eda said, rolling her eyes.

“We know this is very sudden, but we could really use your help, Miss Eda.” Goofy said politely.

“We’re running from those guards, but we have no idea where we are or even what to do.” Sora said. “We followed you because we were hoping you could help give us information about this place.”

“Wait, you three really don’t know about this place?” Luz asked, puzzled. “I thought you three lived here.”

“Look, that’s very nice and all, but I don’t really care that much about helping you three.” Eda said.

“Please, don’t get rid of them. These three NEED help! They need OUR help! We can’t just leave them behind!” Luz begged, staring deep into Eda’s eyes.

Eda looked back at Luz, and she began to look saddened. She sighed heavily and closed her eyes. “Okay, fine… these three can stick around.” Eda’s attitude quickly changed from regret to anger as she looked at the trio. “But you three have a lot of answering to do when we land, got it?!” The trio nodded. “Good.” Eda looked up and began to smile again.

Luz smiled at the trio, but it faded away as soon as she focused on the ground. She remembered why she was freaking out in the first place. “Flying staffs! Crazy monsters! You’re a witch! What is this place?!” Luz asked frantically. Eda grabbed Luz’s back and pulled her back to the top of the staff.

“This is The Boiling Isles: every myth you humans have is caused by a little of our world leaking into yours.” Eda explained as a giant bird-like creature flew alongside them.

“A Griffin!” Luz shouted as her eyes sparkled with unexplainable joy being able to see it in person. The Griffin began to throw up spiders, but it only made her smile more. “I know it!!”

“Yep! Griffins, Vampires, Giraffes, you name it.” Eda listed.

“Wait, Giraffes?” Luz asked, greatly confused.

“Oh yeah, we banished those guys! Buncha freaks…” Eda mumbled.

“Do you know what she’s talking about, Sora?” Donald and Goofy asked.

“I’ve never heard of any of those things before…” Sora said, still confused.

The staff began to get closer to the ground as they were about to land. When they were a safe distance from the ground, the trio let go of each other’s hands, landed on the ground, and walked over to the staff, which had now stopped moving and only hovered slightly above the ground. Eda had already gotten off of the staff and Luz was still sitting on it. Suddenly, Luz screamed and jumped off of the staff out of fear. The trio ran over to help her up.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?” They asked her.

“Oops, that happens sometimes.” Eda walked over to her staff and took something off of it. It turned out to be her hand, completely severed from her body. She put it on her arm and screwed it into place and grabbed her staff, as if nothing happened to her hand in the first place. The trio’s only response was to stare in confusion.

“Well, I’ve had enough adventure for today!” Luz said, trying to act confident. “This is clearly not the PG fantasy world I always dreamed about. So… can you help me get back home?” She asked desperately. Eda waved her staff in front of Luz.

“Only if you help me first!” Eda laughed as she levitated her bag behind her. “Now come along, human. You three as well.” She beckoned them as she walked away. Luz and the trio followed shortly behind her. They walked for a short while before coming across a house in the middle of nowhere.

“Whoa…” Luz gasped as she saw the house. However, the trio had a look of terror when they approached it. It was the same house that they tried to enter before! It wasn’t an abandoned house, and they landed very close to it!

“Isn’t this the same building we tried to get into earlier today?!” Donald asked, worried.

“Do ya think Miss Eda will know we tried to get in here?” Goofy pointed out.

“We never actually ENTERED the house, so I think we’ll be fine! … right?” Sora tried to sound confident, but failed greatly.

“Hey, you three!” Eda shouted from the front door. “We don’t have all day to appreciate my house! Hurry it up!” The trio ran up to catch up with Eda and Luz.

“Aren’t you worried about those guards finding us?” Luz asked as she turned around and saw the open road behind them.

“Nope! My house has a state-of-the-art defense system!” Eda boasted as she turned to face the front door. The trio paid close attention to what Eda was about to do so they would know why they couldn’t enter the house before.

Suddenly, the strange owl-like doorplate began to talk! “Hoot hoot! Password please.” It said. The trio was completely shocked since it never talked when they first showed up. Eda rolled her eyes and poked the doorplate in both of its eyes.

“We got no time for this Hooty! Let us in.” Eda said, irritated.

“All right, all right! Geez! You never wanna have any fun! Ow! Hoot!” Hooty complained but ultimately complied to Eda. Hooty opened his mouth so wide that it fit the entire door frame. Eda and Luz walked inside, but before the trio could walk in, Hooty closed his mouth. “Oh, hey! It’s you three again!” Hooty exclaimed. “So how are you doing since the last time I saw you?” The door began to bang from the other side, so Hooty opened his mouth again and Eda and Luz walked back outside.

“What are you doing Hooty?! Let these three in already!” Eda demanded, thoroughly annoyed.

“Eda, these three tried to enter your house a couple of hours ago! It was so much fun watching them try!” Hooty reported, laughing. Luz was very surprised, but Eda gave a glare that could cut through anything.

“You three did WHAT?!” Eda shouted, enraged.

“We’re really sorry Miss Eda!” Goofy apologized. “We just thought this place was abandoned and hoped we could learn more about where we are!”

“Yeah, they tried to bash me down and everything, but of course they failed. Aren’t you proud of me Eda?” Hooty asked.

“How were we supposed to know the door came to life?! It didn’t when we first showed up!” Donald said, trying to defend himself.

“Eda, please calm down. They really didn’t mean to cause any trouble in your house!” Luz begged.

“Alright, fine, it was an honest mistake, I get it.” Eda said as she began to calm down. “Looks like I have even MORE questions to ask you three now…”

“We really are sorry that we tried to enter your house.” Sora said. “We promise we’ll answer your questions when we’re inside.”

“Yeah, you better.” Eda said, rubbing the side of her head. “Alright Hooty, let us all inside.”

“Of course! Anything for you and my new best friends!” Hooty said with joy. Then, Hooty stretched his mouth out to the door frame again and everyone walked inside. Hooty closed his mouth once everyone entered.

“Welcome to… The Owl House!” Eda exclaimed as she snapped her fingers. Suddenly, the house became very lively as candles lit up, appliances began to move on their own, and the ceiling began to light up. Luz and the trio stared in amazement as they could clearly see the house. The trio felt even worse about trying to enter the house earlier after seeing how nice it really is. “This is where I hide away from the pressure of modern life. Also the cops. Also ex-boyfriends.” Eda laughed as she began to reminisce.

“This place is beautiful!” Luz said as she began wandering around the house. “Do you live here all alone?” Suddenly, the ceiling began to shake and footsteps could be heard. Everyone looked up in shock, except Eda, who rolled her eyes.

“Actually, I have a roommate…” Eda sighed. The footsteps grew more powerful as a looming shadow appeared in a nearby door frame. Luz turned towards the door frame in curiosity, but the trio got into their fighting stances, but kept their weapons unsummoned. Eda raised an eyebrow, as this was the third time in a short time period she saw the trio act defensively.

“Who dares disturb I, the King of Demons?!” The ominous shadow demanded. The shadow continued to grow as the monster got closer to the door. When the monster revealed itself, it was nothing like its menacing shadow. It was a small creature with black fur and a collar on. Its eyes were yellow and purple, and most of its face was just its skull. It was wearing two towels, one on its head and one on its body, and it was holding a rubber duck. Luz gasped in amazement after seeing the creature, but the trio was still confused.

“Will you three stop acting so defensive every five minutes?! This is getting annoying.” Eda said, staring at the trio.

“Oh, sorry. We’re still a little on-edge since we first arrived here…” Sora said, embarrassed.

“Yeah, you’re a lot more on-edge than just ‘a little’.” Eda said, making quotation marks with her fingers.

“So wait, this little monster is your roommate?” Donald asked.

“I know, right? What a handful he is…” Eda sighed.

“Really? He doesn’t look like that much of a handful.” Goofy pointed out.

“Oh trust me, you’ll see soon enough.” Eda said, reassuringly.

Luz couldn’t take much more of the monster and squealed out of happiness. “¡Ay, que lindo!” Luz shouted as she ran up to the monster, hugging it. “Eda, he’s so cute!!” She exclaimed as she nuzzled her face against his. “Who’s a widdle guy? Who’s a widdle guy?! Is it you? Is it you?!” She teased in a playful tone.

“No! I don’t know who the little guy is! Eda, who is this monster?!” The monster panicked as he tried to escape Luz’s grasp.

“Oh, this is Luz, the human.” Eda said as she pulled Luz away from the monster, but Luz was still trying to grab hold of the monster.

“Then who are those three monsters?!” The monster referred to the trio, still panicking. “Don’t come anywhere near me!” He shouted as he covered his face.

“These three are… uh…” Eda hesitated, realizing she never cared about their names until now. The trio stepped forward and introduced themselves to everyone.

“My name’s Sora!” He said with a wide smile.

“I’m Donald!” He said, giving a confident pose.

“And I’m Goofy! Pleasure to meet you all!” He said, giving a little wave.

Everyone took their introduction differently. Luz smiled and waved at everyone, Eda rolled her eyes, and the monster began to calm down.

“Okay, but, why are they all here?” The monster asked, confused since she hardly brought home anyone, let alone this many suspicious people.

“Well, these three have come questions to answer,” Eda said as she glared angrily at the trio, “but the human girl’s here to help us with our little… situation.” She said as she let go of Luz.

“Oh, hooray!” The monster said as he threw his hands into the air.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Luz said as she backed away from Eda. “I don’t like the sound of this ‘situation’.”

“Did something awful happen to you and your friend?” Goofy asked, concerned.

“If you’re ‘the most powerful witch on The Boiling Isle’, then why do you need Luz’s help?” Donald asked, suspicious.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Sora asked, always ready to help someone in need.

“Just… let me explain.” Eda backed away from everyone and used her hands to draw a massive circle. Then, the inside of the circle continuously showed what Eda was telling in her story. “King was once a mighty king of demons, until his crown of power was stolen, and became… this.” She said in a disappointed tone.

“You mean this little bundle of joy?” Luz said as she began to hug King again. Eda ignored Luz and continued her story.

“The crown is being held by the evil Warden Wrath and locked away behind a magical force field that only a human can break through - a human like you!” Eda’s circle disappeared. “If you help us retrieve his crown, we’ll send you back to your world. So whaddya say?” She took King out of Luz’s hands. “Plus, who could say no to this cute face?”

“No! Please don’t encourage her!” King begged. The trio quietly laughed among each other.

“I mean, we’re kinda your only way home.” Eda said as she dropped King onto the floor.

“So… I don’t really have a choice, do I?” Luz asked in a defeated tone.

“Nope! And we don’t have much time to lose!” Eda said with a mischievous grin.

“Where exactly will we be going?” Luz asked.

“Somewhere super fun: The Conformitorium, a place for those considered unsuitable for society.” Eda answered in a sarcastic tone. The trio looked among each other and nodded.

“We’re going with you!” The trio declared.

“No, you’re not!” Eda shoved her hand in front of the trio.

“Why not Eda? You saw how powerful they were fighting off those guards and getting onto the staff.” Luz pointed out. “We could use all the help we can get.” She tried to guilt trip Eda into letting the trio join. It worked, and Eda started to get less serious.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Eda admitted. “But not until you finally answer my questions, got it?!” The trio nodded and prepared themselves for whatever question they would be asked. “Good. Now, first question: what are you three?”

The trio were shocked from being asked an obvious question, but they answered honestly anyway.

“Well, I’m a duck.” Donald stated.

“And I’m a dog.” Goofy said.

“Yeah, and I’m a human.” Sora said, smiling.

Eda burst out laughing. “You?! A human?!” She continued to laugh, making everyone in the house uncomfortable. Eda eventually composed herself and got serious again. “Wanna try giving me an actual answer this time?”

“But I wasn’t lying, I really AM a human!” Sora tried to defend himself.

“Stop trying to fool me kid, it ain’t gonna work!” Eda said, getting in Sora’s face.

“Eda, stop! We don’t have to fight over this!” Luz said as she separated Sora and Eda.

“Yes they do! Bloodshed! Bloodshed!” King chanted as he got comfy on the couch.

“I don’t get it Eda, why don’t you believe him?” Luz questioned.

“Look, I thought he was a human when I first met him, and I still do.” Eda said, calming down. “He clearly doesn’t know anything about The Boiling Isles and has the same rounded ears that you humans have… somewhere in there.” She said as she examined Sora’s long and spiky hair. “But the longer he stayed, the more suspicious he became. Firstly, he didn’t know how that ‘T.V.’ thing worked. If he was from your world, he obviously would’ve recognized it. Secondly, he actually has a magic staff. Granted, it’s the weirdest magic staff I’ve ever seen, but I could feel a great power coming from it when you lodged it into mine. Finally, you actually cast magic! It’s physically impossible for humans to cast magic, and yet he cast an incredibly powerful spell I’ve never seen before on those guards like it was nothing! He’s clearly not like you Luz, so I’ll ask this again: what are you?” She said as she turned back towards Sora.

Sora was conflicted about telling the truth. He was silent for a moment, but finally began to talk. “The thing is… I’m-” Sora was cut off when Donald grabbed his wrist and pulled him away.

“Can you excuse us for a minute? We need to have a thorough talk.” Donald said as he and Goofy brought Sora over to the other side of the room. They began whispering with each other.

“Sora, you can’t tell them the truth!” Donald demanded.

“Why not? There’s no point trying to lie to them.” Sora said.

“But what about protecting the World Order?” Goofy pointed out.

“Forget the World Order, it’s already broken! They already know other worlds exist! Why bother trying to hide it if they already know?” Sora exclaimed.

“Well, you do have a good point.” Goofy admitted.

“But that doesn’t mean you can just reveal every world and their inhabitants to them!” Donald argued.

Sora thought to himself, then had an idea. “What if we were vague about the worlds we’ve visited?” Sora said, acting like he had a breakthrough. “We can say we’ve been to other worlds, but not give any details about them. We’ll only mention the Guardians of Light and very deserted worlds, like Destiny Island.”

“Say, that’s a great idea!” Goofy exclaimed. “What do you think Donald?”

Donald was hesitant, but knew he couldn’t win. “Alright, we can be vague about the other worlds. But if you don’t follow your idea, I’m never healing you again, got it?!” Donald threatened. Sora nodded and they walked back over to Eda, Luz, and King.

“Okay… the truth is, I’m a human. I’m just not from the same world that Luz is from.” Sora confessed. Eda, Luz, and King were all shocked by this statement.

“Humans are from more places than just Earth?!” Luz exclaimed.

“Yes! More worlds for me to conquer!” King said happily.

“So if you’re not from Luz’s human world, then what human world are you from?” Eda questioned.

“It’s a world called Destiny Island: a small island surrounded by an endless sea and sky.” Sora stated.

“Wow… that sounds like a beautiful place to stay.” Luz said as her eyes sparkled with delight.

“Eh, sounds like a pretty boring place to stay.” King said, uninterested.

“King’s right. It’s not a great place to stay.” Sora admitted. “It’s boring and even depressing to stay, almost like it’s a prison…”

“If it’s basically a prison, then how did you escape from it?” Eda asked.

“Well, that’s the thing: I didn’t.” Sora admitted. “My world fell into darkness and was destroyed. When I woke up, I was in a completely different world, alone and scared. That’s when I met Donald and Goofy. We became best friends and together we traveled to many different worlds to prevent other worlds from falling into darkness.”  
  
“Fell into darkness?!” Eda, Luz, and King all shouted.

“Wow! Your home being destroyed and wanting to protect others is just like what Azura did!” Luz said, holding her book close to her.

“Aww… why wasn’t I there when the world fell to darkness? I could’ve ruled over it!” King pouted.

“How do you three travel between all of these worlds?” Eda questioned.

“This’ll sound crazy, but we have a spaceship.” Sora said. “It’s called the Gummiship. We use it to travel across the empty space between each world. When we landed in this world, we accidentally landed really close to your house and tried to enter your house. Again, sorry.”

“So that’s why Hooty recognized you three when we got here!” Luz realized.

“Wait, you three were the ones banging on the door today?!” King asked angrily. “You woke me up from my nap!”

“So that explains why the first thing you tried to do was break into my house, but how exactly did you prevent other worlds from falling into darkness?” Eda questioned.

“We had to fight the Heartless.” Sora stated. “They are monsters that are born from the darkness within someone’s heart. When someone falls into darkness, their hearts are removed and the darkness takes over their hearts, creating the Heartless. They seek to eradicate all light, and can’t be reasoned with. A world falls into darkness when the Heartless find the world’s keyhole and use it to reach the heart of the world, corrupting it and making it fall into darkness. Worlds can be brought back, but it’s an incredibly difficult process.”

“That sounds very terrifying…” Luz said sadly.

“Darkness, huh? Maybe I’m a Heartless!” King exclaimed happily. Donald and Goofy shook their heads at King, and he sighed.

“So I’m guessing you use that weird staff of yours to get that done?” Eda asked.

“Yes; the Keyblade is what allows the hearts to be freed from the darkness.” Sora said as he summoned his Keyblade. “They’re the strength of one’s heart, and are the light through the darkness. They also have the power to lock and unlock any keyhole, even the keyholes that lead to the heart of worlds.”

“Oh, it’s like a skeleton key! A really metaphorical skeleton key!” Luz recalled.

“So do your friends have one as well?” King asked.

“No, but we still fight for light.” Donald said as he summoned his magic staff.

“We weren’t chosen by a Keyblade or trained to wield one, but we still fight against the darkness.” Goofy said as he summoned his shield.

“So it’s not you that’s casting magic, but your weapon?” Eda questioned.

“Well, sort of.” Sora admitted. “I didn’t know any magic before I had the Keyblade, but since then, the Keyblade has mostly become an extension of myself. Sure, I’ve learned some basic magic spells thanks to Donald and Goofy, but the more complicated magic I’ve learned comes from my own heart. The spell I used on the guards was used from gathering energy and releasing it as electricity through the Keyblade, and the magic I used to reach your staff, Flowmotion, was caused from using my Keyblade to tap into the heart of the world.”

“Wow, you must have an incredible heart to be able to do all of that!” Luz said in amazement. “Do you think I’ll be able to learn magic like that?! I've always wanted to learn magic!”

“Maybe you’ll be able to.” Sora said, smiling. “It all depends on you and your heart.”

“That’s cool and all, but I don’t care about using light.” King yawned. “I’m the King of Demons, I prefer to use darkness!”

“Well, darkness can still be used to help those in need.” Sora said with a nervous smile. “Just be careful about how you use your darkness, okay?” King rolled his eyes.

“Okay, I think I’m finally satisfied with your answers.” Eda admitted. “Look, I’m sorry for acting so rude when we first met. I get it now: you three arrived in an unfamiliar world and were afraid that we were the monsters that destroyed worlds, that’s why you kept acting so defensive. You three tried to break into my house because you wanted information about the new world. I acted harshly when you three needed help, and I’m sorry…”

“It’s okay, we understand why you acted so harshly towards us.” Donald said.

“Yeah! You had good reason to be suspicious of us in the first place.” Goofy pointed out.

“We forgive you Eda. Hopefully we can be friends!” Sora said as his eyes sparkled.

“Don’t push you luck, kid!” Eda said as she gave a cocky smirk.

“This is amazing…” Luz whispered, tearing up. “The power of friendship really can overcome anything…”

Eda became uncomfortable after hearing what Luz said. “Okay, that’s enough of that! Come on Luz, it’s time we go and get King’s crown back from the Warden.”

“Mind if we join you?” Donald asked.

“Wait, you three still want to come with us? Even after how I treated you three?” Eda asked, completely surprised.

“Well, yeah! The more the merrier, right?” Goofy said.

“B-but… you three realize that there’s literally nothing in it for you, right?!” Eda asked, perplexed by their offer.

“We know, and we’re still going to help you out. That’s what friends do for each other, right?” Sora asked.

Eda gave a little smirk. “You three really are the strangest creatures I’ve ever met. Well, if there’s no talking you three out of it, then let’s get going.”

Hooty opened his mouth so Luz, Eda, King, and the trio could begin their journey to the Conformitorium to regain King’s crown. Eda set her staff parallel to the ground, the owl at the end of the staff opened up, and it began to float. Luz sat at the front of the staff, Eda sat at the end of the staff, and King sat between them. The trio stood next to the staff. Sora took out his Keyblade and hooked it onto the staff so they would be hanging on from upside-down like last time. Sora then grabbed Donald’s hand, then Goofy grabbed Donald’s other hand. Everyone nodded their head, and the staff began flying. Sora, Donald, and Goofy were ready to begin their new journey in The Boiling Isles with their new friends Luz, Eda, and King.


	2. The Warden Of Darkness

Luz, Eda, King, Sora, Donald, and Goofy were all flying on Eda’s staff in order to reach the Conformatorium with the goal to regain King’s crown from the Warden. Night came as the group was approaching an ominous structure. It was a massive enclosed circle, where there was only one road leading to the entrance. At the center of the wall as a tower, well lit in the night sky.

“There it is: the Conformatorium.” Eda announced.

“My crown has to be at the top of the tower!” King shouted.

“Don’t worry King, we’ll get your crown back!” Donald reassured.

“Yeah! And we’ll make sure everyone gets back safely.” Goofy said happily.

“Oh man, my own magical quest!” Luz said, both excited to see more magic and terrified of getting hurt.

“Be careful everyone, I’ve got a bad feeling about this place…” Sora said as he gazed at the Conformatorium with dread.

The group closed in on the tower and began to land. They landed just outside the entrance to the wall. Luz, with King on top of her head, peeked around the corner of the wall to look for guards, while the trio looked around the outside. Eda looked up at the top of the tower, creating a plan for how to reach the crown.

“The front entrance is clear.” Luz and King reported.

“No guards are coming towards the wall.” The trio announced.

“Perfect! Now gather around, I’ve got a plan ready.” Eda beckoned them to come closer. Luz and King were about to turn around and leave the corner when Luz spotted another wanted poster of Eda, but this time she noticed that King was on it as well. She took the poster off the wall and took a closer look.

“Whoa.” Luz said, hardly surprised by it. “These guys really have the hots for you.”

“Seriously, there are wanted posters of you two all over this area!” Sora said, holding another wanted poster that was taken from the same wall.

“You better believe they do, but we were never caught because we’re too slippery!” Eda bragged as she winked.

“Yeah! Try to catch me when I’m covered in grease! I’m a squirmy little fella!” King agreed as he was squirming around on Luz’s head. He lost his balance and fell off of Luz, but got right back up.

“Gawrsh, what did you two do that you have to squirm away from them?” Goofy asked, concerned.

“I think the question is: what DIDN’T they do?” Donald said as he stared at the large reward price.

“Look, that’s besides the point. Although I’m very proud of the hard work I’ve done to get this massive bounty, we’re here for King’s crown.” Eda dismissed the wanted posters. “Now come here, it’s time for the plan.” Everyone gathered around Eda and prepared for the big plan.

“Here’s what we’re going to do: Luz and King will sneak up to the top of the tower where they’re holding King’s crown. I’m gonna make sure the Warden’s distracted so you two can reach King’s crown safely. Finally, Sora, Donald, and Goofy will go with Luz and King to keep them safe, and if needed, take down any guards that try to stop them.” Eda announced.

“Will I need a disguise?!” Luz gasped in excitement.

“Uhh…” Eda stuttered. Obviously a human would stick out from everyone else and wouldn’t be very sneaky, but there wasn’t any time to try and make a disguise for Luz. Eda was conflicted on what to say, but Luz was already a step ahead of her.

“I’ve been waiting to use this!” Luz said, barely containing her excitement. She put on her hood, which had two little flaps on top of them. “Meow meow!” Luz shouted as she tilted each flap up, revealing them to be cat ears. The trio smiled at Luz, while Eda and King stared with blank expressions.

“It’s hideous.” King said, but in a reassuring tone.

“Oh you’ll fit right in!” Eda said with a large grin.

“Sora, you should put your hood on as well.” Donald suggested.

“It might not be as good of a disguise as Luz’s, but at least it’s something.” Goofy agreed.

“Yeah, maybe they’ll think I’m just a wizard with my hood on.” Sora said as he put his hood up.

“Alright, does everyone remember what to do?” Eda double checked. It was a solid plan and no one bothered to try and create any alternative plans. “Then let’s get started!” She shouted.

Eda stabbed her staff on the ground. Suddenly, a large yellow circle that was completely filled in appeared around the center of the staff. The circle was large enough for all six of them to stand on, but Eda walked off of the circle. Then, the circle began to rise.

“Hang on tight!” Eda shouted as the circle flew higher into the air. The circle made its way towards an open window on the tower, then suddenly disappeared. Luz was able to grab onto the edge of the window, and King grabbed onto Luz’s leg, but the trio couldn’t grab onto anything and began to fall. As the trio were falling, Sora reached out and grabbed Goofy’s hand while Donald grabbed Goofy’s other hand. Sora then summoned his Keyblade and stabbed at the wall, slicing through it, but slowing down. The trio eventually came to a complete stop, but were way too far out of Luz and King’s reach.

“Are you all okay?!” Luz shouted at the trio, worried.

“Don’t worry, we’re fine.” Sora reassured them. “We’ll be back up to you two real soon, just go inside without us for now.”

The owl on Eda’s staff opened up as its eyes glowed yellow. Eda tossed the staff to the side, and it began to fly again. As the staff circled around, Eda jumped on and flew towards the tower. “Meet you guys at the top of the tower!” Eda shouted as she passed the trio, Luz, and King. The trio and Luz stared in amazement as Eda flew past them, while King squirmed his way into the window. Luz struggled, but managed to pull herself up into the window as well.

Now that the way to the window was clear, the trio looked at each other and nodded. Sora began to glow light blue as he was preparing to use Flowmotion once again. While still holding onto Donald and Goofy, Sora launched off his Keyblade to get closer to the wall. When Sora’s hand touched the wall, he pushed off of it, giving himself enough room for his feet to touch the wall. When his feet touched, Sora began to run vertically up the wall. Donald and Goofy never learned Flowmotion, but because they were physically connected to Sora when he was performing it, they were able to use Flowmotion through him, allowing them to run up the wall as well. When Sora reached the window, he stopped running up the wall and grabbed onto the edge of the window. Together, Sora and Goofy threw Donald up into the window, then Sora threw Goofy into the window. Finally, Sora grabbed the edge with both hands, kicked off the wall, and flipped into the window, joining up with Luz and King.

“Took you three long enough!” King said impatiently.

“Sora’s incredible at Flowmotion, so it was easy for him to get us up here.” Goofy said.

“You would’ve had to wait even longer if Sora wasn’t here to help!” Donald barked.

“King, you don’t have to be so rude; they’re here to help us, remember?!” Luz scolded.

“I’m sorry… it’s just been so long since I’ve had my powers back. I just want to return to normal…” King apologized.

Luz knelt down to King and put his hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry King, we’re going to get your crown back.”

“Now, how do we get to the top of the tower?” Sora asked as they began walking away from the window.

The inside of the tower was just as dreadful as the outside. There was a spiral ramp that ran upwards with countless cells along the ramp. The cells held many strange inhabitants of The Boiling Isles, but very few looked like they were actually dangerous. Donald, Goofy, and Luz stared at all the filled cells with despair, while Sora looked at the bottom of the tower in hesitance. Something was off with this prison, but he couldn’t tell what.

“Hey cat lady!” A female voice shouted. Everyone turned around and saw a woman behind bars was calling for Luz. “How’d you get out of your cell?” She asked.

The group got closer to the female prisoner. “Oh, no no no, I’m not a cat.” Luz said as she took off her hood. “Also I’m not a criminal.” She said, trying to defend herself.

“Not yet you’re not!” King corrected, playing devil’s advocate.

“Neither are we!” The female prisoner agreed.

“If you’re not a criminal, then why are you here?” Sora asked, completely forgetting Eda’s explanation of what the Conformatorium is.

“The stupid Warden likes to lock up people who don’t fit in…” the female prisoner said in despair. “Like, I write fanfics of food falling in love!” She said as she pulled out a book and opened it to a page with a carrot and onion falling in love. “I like food, I like love, just let me write about it!”

“They threw you in here just for writing a story?! That seems pretty pointless.” Donald said.

“Right?! What’s so harmful about a story made for fun?!” The female prisoner shouted angrily.

“I’m here because I like eating my own eyes.” The prisoner in the right cell said sadly. He was a blue creature with many eye sockets, but only some of them were filled with eyes. The blue prisoner took one of his eyes out of his socket, swallowed it, then the eye appeared back in the same socket as if nothing ever happened.

“That actually looks like a lot of fun.” Goofy noted.

“It is, especially if I do more than one eye at a time!” The blue prisoner said happily as he swallowed two eyes at the same time, which both appeared in different sockets than where they originated from.

“We are agents of fwee expwession! They will never siwence us!” The prisoner in the left cell chanted. She was a short creature with a large nose and long hair that reached the ground.

“Yeah, she’s really big into conspiracy theories.” The female prisoner clarified.

“‘Conspiracy theories’? What are those?” Sora asked curiously as he put his hood down.

“The world is a simuwation! We are but pway things for a higher being!” The short prisoner shouted.

“Oh, that’s what you meant…” Sora said in despair as he recalled how Xehanort used Kairi to help create the χ-blade.

“Wait, these aren’t crimes. None of you actually did anything wrong!” Luz said, furious. Her expression quickly changed as she remembered and took out the wanted poster of Eda and King. She looked at the wanted poster with melancholy, realizing why Eda and King were wanted. “You’re all just a bunch of weirdos. Like me…” She said with dejection.

The trio looked at Luz with concern and were about to ask what she meant. But before they could ask, the ground began to shake. Everyone looked at the door ahead with fear.

“It’s Warden Wrath! Hide!!” The female prisoner warned. Luz dropped the wanted poster as they looked around frantically for a place to hide and found a nearby prison cell with the gate open. Luz and King scurried into the prison cell, but Sora closed the gate without flipping the switch before anyone else could enter the cell.

“What are you doing?! Why didn’t you get into the cell?!” Luz shouted, confused.

“It’s our job to keep you and King safe, and that’s what we’re going to do!” Goofy said as he summoned his shield.

“Are you three insane?! You’ll totally die against the Warden!” King protested.

“We just need to distract him, not win!” Donald pointed out as he summoned his staff.

“Then in that case, we might actually get my crown back!” King said confidently.

“When we completely have his attention, leave the cell and get to the top of the tower! We’ll hold him off as long as we can!” Sora ordered as he summoned his Keyblade. Luz and King nodded, still terrified of the Warden, but the prisoners looked at the trio with amazement and respect.

The door slammed open, and Warden Wrath walked through. He looked like the guards that attacked them at Eda’s stand, but he was more muscular and his eyes glowed a sinister yellow. “I can hear you.” Warden Wrath announced menacingly as he walked closer to the cells. The prisoners, including Luz and King, gave a scared whimper as Warden Wrath got closer. “Just what are you fools whispering about?” He stopped walking and noticed the trio in front of him. “Three intruders. I’m glad you three came here; the guards wouldn’t stop talking about the three mysterious people who escaped. Now that you’re here, you’re never leaving the Conformatorium.” Warden Wrath laughed.

“How could you lock up these people just because they’re different from everyone else?” Goofy shouted.

“These people are outcasts; they have no place in society. This is for their own good.” Warden Wrath argued, getting booed by the prisoners.

“How is locking them up and forcing them away from others for their own good?!” Donald said, perplexed.

“Because now they’re surrounded by other outcasts; now they actually fit in with others.” Warden Wrath stated as the prisoners continued to boo him.

“Being strange and standing out in a crowd is something to be proud of! It shouldn’t be a crime or looked down on!” Sora shouted, speaking from experience. Luz’s eyes sparked with hope when Sora said that.

“The Emperor’s orders are absolute. It is a crime, and you three are some of the biggest offenders I’ve ever met. It’s time I deal with you three and put you in your place.” Warden Wrath said as he walked closer to the trio.

Suddenly, shadowy figures began to crawl across the wall and floor, coming from upper and lower levels of the Conformatorium. The shadowy figures surrounded the trio, then rose to reveal themselves. They were long, thin, black monsters with yellow glowing eyes and blue veins across their entire bodies. They had antennas and razor-sharp claws. Other monsters floated towards the trio from upper and lower levels. They were large creatures with pink robes and purple hats. They were wielding staffs and had a red and black emblem in the shape of a heart across their chest. They floated around the trio along with the shadowy figures. Together, the shadowy figures and floating monsters attacked the trio. The prisoners gasped in fear, but Warden Wrath had no reaction.

“Neoshadows!” Goofy shouted as he blocked one of the shadowy figure’s claws.

“Wizards!” Donald shouted as he cast Fire to counter one of the floating monster’s Blizzard spell.

“You know what these things are?!” King asked in amazement.

“They’re Heartless!” Sora shouted as he dodged a Neoshadow that was leaping towards him.

“Hey, that’s not a nice thing to call someone— wait, you mean these are the monsters that destroy worlds?!” Luz shouted, panicking. The trio nodded their heads.

“So some of the prisoners have managed to escape.” Warden Wrath calmly noted. He stood back and watched the Heartless slowly close in on the trio. “Looks like the prisoners have become loyal.” He laughed. “These are some of the most powerful criminals held in the Conformatorium. Even the guards couldn’t bring them in; I had to capture them myself. With this many, they’ll take care of you three in no time.” Warden Wrath said confidently. He started to walk away, but stopped when he noticed the torn wanted poster of Eda and King on the floor.

“Ah, The Owl Lady.” Warden Wrath said as he picked up the poster. He crumpled it up, then transformed his hand into a hammer. He slammed his hammer arm against the cell gate that Luz and King, causing it to dent. “I’ll get my hands on her soon enough.” He shouted. He looked back at the trio, who haven’t defeated any of the Heartless yet. “Perhaps you three know where The Owl Lady is. After all, how else did the poster get in here?” He said confidently. He walked closer to the trio with his hand still a hammer.

“How about a deal: if you tell me where The Owl Lady is hiding, I’ll stop the prisoners with you and won’t have any more guards try to arrest you. How does that sound?” Warden Wrath offered.

“We’re not gonna take your deal!” Donald refused as he got a direct hit on a Wizard with Thunder, defeating it.

“Yeah! We would never betray Miss Eda!” Goofy agreed as he slammed his shield against a Neoshadow, turning it to smoke.

“Eda’s our friend, and we’re going to help her out!” Sora shouted as he did a rising slash on a Wizard followed by a downward thrust on a Neoshadow, defeating both.

“So be it. You three are very powerful for lasting this long, but you are vastly outnumbered. The Conformatorium will be your grave!” Warden Wrath shouted angrily as he walked away from the trio.

“Yes! Yes!! Fight against the oppwessor!” The short prisoner shouted, inspired by watching the trio fight back against the Heartless and the Warden. “We will wesist! We will conquer!” She continued to chant as the battle raged on. Warden Wrath stopped and walked towards the short prisoner’s cell. “We will never be afwaid of you, you old cweep! We will keep fighting against you, just like those thwee!”

Warden Wrath turned his hand back to normal and pulled a switch next to the short prisoner’s cell. The gate opened up and he grabbed the short prisoner. “Let this be a lesson to all of you: there’s no place in society for you if you can’t fit in.” He announced, holding up the young prisoner. He began to walk towards the door with the short prisoner in hand. The trio tried to stop Warden Wrath from taking away the prisoner, but they ended up losing focus of the Heartless and got hurt. The Warden slammed the door he originally came from, leaving the trio injured to deal with the Heartless. The prisoners, Luz, and King watched in despair as the trio struggled against the Heartless.

“Gawrsh, we’re in some serious trouble!” Goofy said, in pain.

“The longer we fight, the more we risk the prisoners getting hurt!” Donald noted.

“We’ve got to work together if we’re going to take care of this many Heartless!” Sora announced. “Donald, don’t heal us yet; we’re going to need our magic.” The trio nodded, and they began to fight as one.

Together, Sora and Donald stood back-to-back and raised their weapons above their heads. The ends of their weapons began to glow purple and black as a purple and black orb began to float over them and the Heartless. The orb grew bigger the longer they kept casting. Goofy got closer to Sora and Donald, luring the Heartless in range of the orb. When all the Heartless were close enough, Sora and Donald dropped their weapons. “Force!” They shouted in unison as the orb above everyone fell onto the ground and became as large as possible. Every Heartless briefly stood still and began to shake, then suddenly were thrown onto the ground. The Neoshadows turned into shadowy figures on the ground, barely getting hurt, but the Wizards took the slam at full force, severely hurting them. Now that all the Wizards were on the ground, Sora and Goofy grabbed each other’s hand with their weapons facing outward. They spun around very quickly, then let go of each other, spinning and ramming into the grounded Wizards, defeating them. Sora and Goofy spun back to each other and Goofy held his shield above his head. Sora climbed onto Goofy’s shield and jumped off of it. Donald then cast Aero under Goofy, launching him into the air. Sora grabbed onto Goofy’s legs and spun him in the air a few times. “Go get’em!” Sora shouted as he threw Goofy back into the ground head first. Goofy landed in the center of Aero, spreading out the spell. With the combined force of the impact of Goofy’s shield and the lifting power of Aero, the Neoshadows were forced out of the ground and into the air, completely defenseless. Now, Sora and Donald grabbed each other’s hands and spun around in a circle. The end of their weapons glowed bright red as fire surrounded them. The longer they spun, the larger the ring of fire became, until it reached every Neoshadow, defeating them. With the Heartless finally taken care of, the trio sat down, injured and tired.

Now that everything had calmed down, Luz lifted her gate, and together she and King escaped. They ran over to the trio to check up on them.

“Are you three okay?!” Luz asked, worried. “I mean, that was some crazy magic, but you got really hurt during that fight!”

“We’ll be okay, we’ve gotten through worse.” Goofy reassured her. “Besides, we’re just glad you’re safe.”

“If you can do crazy magic like that, why didn’t you start with that on the Warden?!” King asked, baffled.

“We can’t use magic forever; we run out of magic if we cast too much.” Donald clarified. “Some magic requires concentration, while some requires energy. We used a lot of energy, and we need to rest before doing any more powerful magic like that.”

“I don’t get it: the Warden didn’t have control over the Heartless because he said they were prisoners. But on the other hand, they completely ignored him and every other prisoner.” Sora said, perplexed. He looked at his Keyblade. “Were they really that attracted to the Keyblade’s light?”

As the trio recovered, Luz and King ran over to the prisoners. “Don’t worry, I can get you all out!” Luz said as she pushed on the lever next to the female prisoner’s cell. Luz pushed with all her might, but the gate stayed shut. “No! My weak nerd arms…” Luz said, defeated. She looked over at the trio. “Hey, someone come and help me open these cells! We’ve got to get them out of here!”

“Just get out of here while you still can, kid.” The female prisoner told Luz.

“I don’t get it, why don’t you want to be free?!” Luz shouted, refusing to leave them behind.

“It’s because we’re already labelled as ‘criminals’.” The female prisoner admitted. “It doesn’t matter if you free us, we’ll keep getting hunted down and returned here just because we’re weirdos. It’s too late for us to enjoy freedom anymore. Enjoy freedom for us…” She said in despair as she walked away from the gate. Luz stood completely still, heartbroken that they accepted isolation just because they don’t fit in. She finally snapped out of her state of sadness and walked away with King on her shoulder as they made their way up the winding ramp to the top of the tower. The trio got up and followed Luz and King, feeling like their victory didn’t exist at all. The trio looked back at the prisoners with sadness.

“We’re going to make that Warden pay.” Sora said as the trio caught up with Luz and King. Luz didn’t respond at all. She continued to look at the ground, sulking about the prisoners not being able to live freely and act like themselves. The trio knew that something was bothering Luz, so they put their hand on her shoulder to try and support her. She gave a little smirk, but it quickly faded away.

They continued to walk up the path until it opened up into a hallway with a massive door at the end. They made their way to the massive door, with low morale. Suddenly, they hear something moving through the air behind them. Sora turned around and saw Eda sitting on her flying staff. He gave a small wave, then turned around. Eda passed them and got off her staff.

“Hey. I just checked.” Eda said, stopping the group. “The Warden is distracted tormenting some tiny creature. He won’t be coming around here anytime soon.” Luz gave no reaction, she just kept her head down and walked away. Eda looked at Luz with confusion. “What’s up with her? She’s never been this down before. Granted, I’ve probably only known her for five minutes…” She asked as she turned towards the trio. “Whoa! What happened to you three?” She asked, shocked at seeing the trio beat up.

“We got attacked by Heartless that showed up when we entered the tower.” Goofy explained.

“Yeah they did! These three are crazy powerful!” King praised them.

“That’s why you’re hurt, but why is Luz so down?” Eda asked, slightly concerned.

“We had a run-in with the Warden and some of the prisoners…” Donald hesitated.

“The Warden was so much scarier than the last time we tried to get my crown back…” King said, shuddering.

“Oh, so the Warden is tormenting one of the prisoners you and Luz ran into…” Eda quickly put it together. “So is that why Luz is down?”

“No; Luz tried to free the prisoners because they were just weirdos and not criminals, but they didn’t want to leave because they didn’t have anywhere to go…” Sora explained sadly.

“She started to think about us and even herself…” King remembered.

Eda looked over at Luz, who was standing in front of a massive door that read CONTRABAND. “It’s nice that she cares about us, but she must have it rough too…” Eda said empathetically. “Well, there isn’t too much we can do about it now. Let’s just hurry up and get King’s crown.” Eda said, trying to move on.

“Yes, my crown! It’s close!” King shouted as he ran towards the door. “I can sense its power!” He said as he clawed the door, trying to open it. He stopped and noticed a door knob, so he jumped up and started to mess with it.

“Aw, he gets so cute when he’s thirsty for power.” Eda pointed out in an attempt to change the subject, but it failed.

“It’s not fair that they’re all here…” Luz said in despair. “They just want to be themselves… Why does everyone think being a weirdo is so bad?!” She shouted, on the verge of crying. It was obvious that her outburst came from a very personal place, but no one knew how to comfort her. Eda put her hand on Luz’s shoulder and looked her in the eyes.

“Listen kid, even though many people may hate you for it, sometimes you gotta own up to your weirdness.” Eda said, trying to comfort Luz.

“Miss Eda’s right! In almost every world we visited, the three of us almost never fit in, but we’re still okay.” Goofy pointed out.

“Where’s the fun in fitting in, anyway?” Donald asked.

“It’s a part of who you are, and no one can take that away from you.” Sora said, reassuredly.

Luz started to smile, but was cut off by the sound of footsteps. Everyone looked at the entrance of the hall to see what was coming. Five white figures began walking down the hallway towards the group. Four of them were large and very cylindrical, each wielding a claymore. One figure in the center was different from the others; it was short and thin, carrying two swords. They all had a white emblem that looked like an upside-down heart with three spikes on the top and sides somewhere on their bodies. The trio immediately summoned their weapons and stood in front of Luz and Eda.

“Nobodies!” Goofy announced. “Looks like some Berserkers and a Samurai!”

“Wait, you know these guys as well?!” Luz said in fear.

“They’re just as bad as the Heartless!” Donald warned.

“Why didn’t you— oh, forget it…” Eda stopped herself, learning her lesson from last time. “Just tell us later what those things are, got it?!”

“Don’t tell me Nobodies are also being held as prisoners here…” Sora sighed.

“Come on door, why won’t you open?!” King shouted as he frantically messed with the nob.

The Samurai pointed one of its swords at the group and the Berserkers charged forward. When close enough, the Berserkers threw their claymores at Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Luz. Sora slid underneath a claymore and grabbed it out of the air as he continued charging towards the Berserker that threw it at him. Goofy blocked another claymore as he slowly approached the Berserker, keeping his guard up. Donald cast Gravity on another claymore, making it incredibly heavy and lodging it in the ground, forcing the Berserker to get closer. Luz shut her eyes and covered her face, having no way to protect herself. However, Eda jumped in front of Luz and drew a circle with her staff, creating the bubble-like barrier around herself. Eda and her barrier stopped the claymore from hurting Luz and the claymore bounced back towards the Berserker, catching it and continuing to charge forward. Eda dropped her barrier and drew another circle on the wall, this time, the circle grew an owl face and extended itself, like Hooty. The owl wall circled around the Berserker and rammed into it, launching it forward towards Eda and Luz. Eda drew one final circle on the ground in front of her, and it erupted into a pillar of fire. The Berserker was launched into the pillar of fire, and when the fire subsided, the Berserker was gone. Donald cast Blizzard on the claymore, preventing the Berserker from lifting it up. Donald got behind the Berserker and cast Magnet with a powerful enough pull to free the claymore. The claymore went soaring towards Magnet, cutting right through the Berserker and defeating it. Goofy continuously blocked the Berserker’s claymore. Enraged, the Berserker decreased its own size and increased the size of its claymore and slammed it into Goofy. With all of his might, Goofy deflected the claymore and sent it flying, leaving the Berserker tiny and defenseless. Goofy crashed his shield against the Berserker, defeating it. Sora ran towards the Berserker and slashed it with its own claymore multiple times, defeating it with ease. All that remained was the Samurai, which approached Sora with both of its swords drawn. They both stopped walking and got into a fighting stance, entering a duel. Neither moved for a while, then suddenly Sora flipped his Keyblade, holding it backwards, then both of them charged towards each other. They both slashed each other as they passed by, then stopped again. Sora flipped his Keyblade back to normal, and the Samurai turned into thorns, defeated.

“Is everyone okay?” Sora asked as he walked back towards the door.

“Yeah, close enough…” Donald gasped, exhausted after casting such powerful magic.

“They were so coordinated, it was scary.” Goofy said.

“You okay, Luz?” Eda asked, noticing that Luz was staring at her.

“You… protected me…” Luz said in awe.

“Well, yeah. We need you safe to get King’s crown back.” Eda said as she ruffled Luz’s hair. Luz gave a little smile, feeling that she was protected because Eda cared about her.

“Finally!” King shouted as he pulled the knob off the door. He pushed the door open and ran inside, leaving everyone else behind.

“Come on, before he hurts himself.” Eda smiled as she walked into the door. Luz and the trio followed behind her. Inside the room, there was a green force field in the center, but nothing else. They noticed King lying on the floor and holding his head. He got back up and charged the force field, but bounced off of it.

“Come on, my crown’s right there! I can't leave its power behind again!” King pouted.

“We have a human, remember?” Eda said, putting her hand on King’s shoulder.

“Oh yeah.” King remembered as he looked at Luz. “Go get my crown! … Please?”

“Okay, here I go.” Luz took a deep breath and walked towards the force field. She reached her hand out and it passed through the force field. She continued walking until she passed completely through.

“Hey Sora, can you pass through the force field as well?” Goofy asked.

“Yeah! You are human after all.” Donald pointed.

Eda thought for a bit. “I mean… I don’t see why you couldn’t pass through.” She concluded.

“Yes! Pass through the force field and bring back even more riches for us!” King demanded.

“Well, it’s worth a shot.” Sora admitted. He walked up to the force field and tried to walk through, but was knocked back. He looked at the force field with confusion, and tried to pass just his arm through. Somehow, his arm made it through! He continued to go through the force field sideways, but when it reached his chest, he was knocked back again.

“So can you get through the force field or not?!” King asked, feeling teased.

“This doesn’t make any sense…” Eda said, completely perplexed.

“I think I understand.” Sora said as he walked back to the group. “I’m still human, but my heart isn’t. It has so many connections with other people, and not all of them are human.”

“More talk about this ‘heart’ stuff…” Eda rolled her eyes. “You really didn’t tell us much did you?”

“Well, you said you were satisfied with my answers!” Sora said, smiling nervously.

“I’m not anymore.” Eda said seriously. “You’ve got a lot more to explain when this is over, got it?” The trio nodded once again. “Yeesh… You three are a mess…”

There was a loud crash from inside the force field, and a bunch of objects came falling out of it. Luz walked back out of the force field with a crown in her hands, but it wasn’t an ordinary crown. It wasn’t made out of metal, but rather cardboard. There was a red circle in the center that read BURGER QUEEN. The trio looked just as confused as Luz did.

“My crown!!” King shouted as he jumped for joy. He extended his arms and Luz handed it over. King put the crown on immediately. “Yes. Yes! I can feel my powers returning! You there, nightmare critter.” He pointed to a stuffed animal. “I shall call you Francois, and you shall be a minion in my army of darkness!” King laughed as he picked up the stuffed animal. Eda was smiling while watching King, but the trio and Luz stared in confusion.

“But nothing happened…” Sora pointed out.

“Yeah, he doesn’t look much stronger.” Goofy admitted.

“I don’t buy this ‘darkness’ talk of his.” Donald said, skeptical.

“That crown doesn’t give him any powers, does it?” Luz asked.

“No, it doesn’t.” Eda admitted. Luz gave her a glare of betrayal. Eda knew she’d lied to Luz the whole time, and seeing her expression made her feel worse about lying. She sighed and decided to come clean. “Look at us, Luz. King and I don't have much in this world. We only have each other… So if that dumb crown is important to him, it’s important to me. And besides, us weirdos have to stick together, you know?” She smiled and winked at Luz, as she blushed and smiled back. The trio smiled at both Eda and Luz, knowing that they had to stick together not only with them, but with each other. “Well, we owe you guys one.” She said moving on. “Collectively. Not one for each of you. Now, let’s get out of here before the Warden finds us and loses his head. Or worse, we lose one of ours.” The trio and Luz nodded, but before they could turn around to leave, a large figure with yellow glowing eyes walked up behind them, accompanied by two guards.

“Too late.” Warden Wrath said as he transformed his hand into an axe blade and swung, chopping off Eda’s head. Everyone stared in horror as Eda’s head launched towards Luz. She managed to catch Eda’s head, who just screamed in terror immediately afterwards. The trio summoned their weapons and faced Warden Wrath.

“You’re going to pay for what you did to Eda!” Sora shouted in anger.

“So you three managed to survive the prisoners.” Warden Wrath calmly noted. “No matter, I have you all right where I want you to be.”

“Eda…” Luz began to tear up as she held Eda’s head. Suddenly, Eda’s head began moving all on it’s own.

“Ow!!” Eda shouted, startling the trio and Luz. “Oh, I hate it when that happens…” She sighed. Luz screamed again, both out of fear and relief.

“Eda! Are you okay?!” Luz shouted, holding Eda’s head closer to her.

“Yeah, I’m fine. This just happens when you get older…” Eda sighed.

“Does it?!” Luz asked, not convinced at all. The trio looked back and saw Luz was talking to Eda’s head. When they looked around for Eda’s body, they saw she was crawling around on the ground, trying to find her head and put it back on. The trio sighed in relief after seeing these strange events. They faced the Warden again, ready to fight, but he ignored them.

“Finally, I have you cornered, Eda the Owl Lady.” Warden Wrath said as he walked towards King, who was still oblivious of what was currently happening. He took the crown off of King’s head, but Sora slashed at his arm, forcing him to drop the crown. King picked up his crown and ran over to Luz and Eda’s head.

“You’re not going to take King’s crown away from him!” Sora shouted.

“You three stay out of this! You never should have been here in the first place! I will not allow you freaks to ruin my plan!” Warden Wrath shouted angrily as he held his arm. He looked at one of the guards. “Restrain them!” He ordered. The guard drew a circle and glowing white ropes surrounded the trio. Prepared for it this time, Sora cast Reflect around the trio, stopping the rope from tangling them. The rope was stronger than Sora expected, and struggled to keep Reflect up. While the trio were struggling to keep Reflect working, Warden Wrath walked past them and stood in front of Luz, King, and Eda’s head.

“My guards could never get you, but I knew if I took your pet’s toy, you’d come running towards me.” Warden Wrath said, composing himself.

“You’ll never take away my crown again!” King shouted as he held the crown close to his body. “You’ll have to pry it out of my dead hands!”

“You may keep it for now.” Warden Wrath said. “That toy was nothing but a trap. Now that I have Eda, it no longer has any use to me.”

“What do you want with me?!” Eda shouted. “I’ve never broken any of your stupid laws! … In front of you!”

“I want you… to go out with me.” Warden Wrath said as he got on one knee and revealed a bouquet of flowers from behind his back.

“WHAT?!” The entire group shouted simultaneously. Everyone stared in confusion at most likely the strangest thing they’ve all heard this entire day.

“Go, boss! You got this!” The two guards cheered. The grip of the ropes eased up as they cheered, allowing the trio to more effectively keep Reflect working.

Warden Wrath gave them a thumbs up and faced Eda. “You’ve always eluded our capture. You’ve always been the one who got away. I found that alluring.” Warden Wrath admitted.

“Gawrsh, this world sure ain’t like any of the other worlds.” Goofy said, still confused.

“It’ll take some time to get used to this world…” Donald said, rubbing his head.

“I don’t think I want to get used to this world…” Sora admitted.

“I hate everything you’re saying right now.” Luz said.

“You stay out of this!” Warden Wrath shouted. He tossed the flower bouquet away and transformed his arm into multiple tentacles. He reached out and grabbed Luz, dropping Eda’s head on the ground. Luz tried to break free from the Warden’s grip, but couldn’t escape. “So how about it, Owl Lady?” He asked as he picked up Eda’s head. Eda stared angrily at the Warden, but he didn’t care. “The most powerful witch of The Boiling Isles and the feared Warden Wrath. We’d be the strongest power couple ever!” Eda looked at the Warden with disgust as soon as he said that. “I mean, it’s not like you can say ‘no’ right now.”

Eda looked at Luz, struggling to escape Warden Wrath’s grip. She then looked at the trio, trying to keep Reflect working, but it was starting to break and the trio was getting exhausted. She then looked at King, who was grabbed by the other guard. His crown was on the floor and King was trying with all his might to pick it back up, but couldn’t. Finally, Eda sighed and looked at Warden Wrath. “All right Warden, you win…” Eda said, defeated. Everyone looked at Eda with shock, wondering why she wanted to agree with him. “I’d just like to say something first. Come closer.” The Warden brought Eda’s head closer to him, and Eda spat in his face. Disgusted, Warden Wrath dropped Luz and rubbed his face in an attempt to clean himself off. Eda, King, and the trio laughed at the Warden.

“Impudent wretch! Don’t you know how many germs are in your mouth?!” Warden Wrath shouted, disgusted and enraged.

“Get over it!” Eda snapped. “You had your guards stalk me, hold my colleagues hostage, and cut off my head! I am NOT going out with you!!”

“If you don’t accept, then I have no choice but to—” Warden Wrath was cut off. Luz grabbed Eda’s staff and whacked the Warden on the head as hard as she could, knocking him out and dropping Eda’s head.

“Nicely done!” Eda complimented. The guard that was holding King ran over to try and grab Eda’s head, but her body pulled his cloak over him. Distracted, the guard dropped King, who ran over and picked up his crown. When Luz ran over, Eda’s body let go of the guard’s cloak and Luz struck the guard on the head, knocking him out as well. The guard keeping the rope around the trio looked over to see what was happening, and the grip of the rope loosened greatly. The trio took advantage of this by dispelling Reflect and slid under the rope, which closed much slower now that the guard was distracted. When the guard turned back to face the trio, they were right in front of his face and proceeded to knock him out as well. With all guards down, Luz opened the owl of the staff and everyone got on. Eda’s body sat in the back, King sat in the middle, Luz sat in front with Eda’s head held closely to Luz’s chest, and the trio grabbed each other’s hands and hooked the Keyblade between Luz and King. It was time to take off and leave.

“Expecto… flying? Magicus… escapicus!” Luz said to try and get the staff to start flying, but nothing happened.

“Get a move on!” Donald shouted at the staff.

“Maybe it’ll work if we try and ask it nicely.” Goofy suggested.

“Nicely?! We don’t have time for that!” King argued.

“King’s right, Warden Wrath is starting to get back up!” Sora warned as he saw the Warden look at everyone gathered around the staff.

Eda glared at Warden Wrath with hatred. “Gun it, magic stick!” Eda ordered. Suddenly, the staff began to fly and everyone went out the door they came in.

“Owl Lady, I won’t let you get away again!” Warden Wrath shouted. Everyone looked back when they heard the Warden say that, and they saw the Warden chasing them. He transformed both of his arms into multiple tentacles and was using them to quickly catch up.

“Is there any way we can go faster?!” Sora asked out of fear.

“Not with you three dragging it down!” Eda scolded. Luz noticed the window up ahead where they first entered and remembered the prisoners inside.

“Eda, lend me your hand!” Luz begged. Eda’s body placed her hand on top of Luz’s, and together, they flipped the switches and released the three prisoners they met earlier. “Go, be free!” Luz shouted as she passed them all.

The group bursted through the front door of the tower, which was surrounded by a massive hole and the wall they originally started their plan. They dived into the hole and tried to make their way to the entrance of the wall, but couldn’t make it. Warden Wrath was right behind them and jumped into the hole after them. He shot one of his tentacle arms at the group and it landed, knocking everyone off the staff and onto the ground. As everyone struggled to get back up, Warden Wrath landed and transformed both of his arms into axes.

“I will personally make sure you never escape! Release the most dangerous prisoner!” Warden Wrath ordered. Guards from the entrance to the towers ran back in to follow Warden Wrath’s orders. Eda reattached her head to her body, Luz and King stood up, and the trio summoned their weapons, all ready to deal with whatever prisoner appeared. Then, a small black creature ran out the door. It had yellow eyes and antennas, looking like a bug version of the Neoshadow. It jumped into the hole and started scrambling towards the group. The entire group laughed, except for Sora.

“Seriously?! THAT’S the most dangerous prisoner?!” Eda snorted, almost crying tears of joy.

“Why, it’s just an ordinary Shadow.” Goofy pointed out.

“Oh please, we mow these things down like grass!” Donald boasted.

“Even I can take on that monster!” King said confidently.

“It’s actually kinda cute!” Luz admitted.

“No… No, something’s wrong! Everyone get back!” Sora warned, anticipating what would happen next.

Then, two more Shadows came out of the door and jumped down. Following them were seven more Shadows that also jumped down. Very quickly, there were thousands of Shadows in the hole with the group. They all turned into shadowy figures and gathered around one small area. When they emerged, they were gathered on top of each other to form a tower and swirled around like a whirlwind. All of their eyes turned orange and it began to slowly move towards the group. Everyone stared at the conglomeration of Shadows in horror.

“Okay, totally didn’t see that one coming.” Eda said, shocked.

“Less cute, LESS CUTE!” Luz shouted out of fear.

“Demon Tower!” The trio shouted as they stood in front of Luz, Eda, and King.

“Wait, a tower of demons? I’m the King of Demons, they’ll listen to whatever I say!” King said confidently. He walked past the trio and stood in front of the Demon Tower with his hand out. “Hey, you literal tower of demons! Your King is speaking, and I command you to take care of the Warden! To be clear, ‘take care of” as in kill, not like, on a date or anything.” The Demon Tower stopped moving forward, but didn’t move towards Warden Wrath. King looked at the Demon Tower and stomped his tiny foot in anger. “Hey! Listen to your King when he’s talking to you! Now I command you to—” King got cut off. The Demon Tower’s eyes turned red and loomed over King, ready to swallow him into the void at the center of the Demon Tower. King screamed in fear, but Sora jumped across and grabbed King, pulling him away from the Demon Tower just before it crashed onto the ground. Many Shadows were scattered across the ground, and they scurried back to the Demon Tower.

“W-w-why won’t they listen to me?! I even have my crown of power!” King asked, still shaking.

“Sorry King, but these demons aren’t going to listen to anyone!” Sora said as he put King down next to Eda.

“No more wasting time! It’s time to finish you all off!” Warden Wrath said as he walked closer to the group. The Shadows regrouped and completed the Demon Tower, making its way closer to the group as well.

“Luz, go back to the human world.” Eda said as she reached into her hair. She pulled out the same key with an eye that was used back at her tent. She handed it over to Luz, then charged towards Warden Wrath.

“What about you guys?!” Luz shouted over the noise as she shoved the key into her bag.

“If you think this guy is bad, you shoulda seen her last boyfriend.” King half-joked as he followed Eda.

“For the last time King, not my boyfriend!” Eda scolded.

Luz faced the trio. “There’s no way you three can stop that monstrosity! You’re still injured, and you said you can’t use any more magic!” She said, begging them not to fight.

“That may be, but we’re not just gonna abandon Eda and King to deal with it AND the Warden!” Donald clarified.

“After all, we made a promise to protect you three, and we’re gonna keep it!” Goofy smiled.

“The three of us are going to be okay, and we’ll make sure you three are okay as well. We’re your friends and theirs, and we’re not going to abandon them when they need help.” Sora said. The trio nodded and ran to face the Demon Tower.

Luz stared at the key with indecision. “But… I don’t want to leave you all behind…” She said quietly.

Sora swiftly dodged the Demon Tower from crashing into him and delivered quick slashes, defeating a couple Shadows at a time. Donald was out of magic to cast, so he had to resort to bashing the individual Shadows that popped out of the Demon Tower every time they crashed. Goofy faced the Demon Tower head-on and deflected it whenever it tried to crash down on him. Shadows were being defeated, but they were in such small numbers that it didn’t make a noticeable dent in the Demon Tower.

Eda swiftly dodged Warden Wrath’s axe swings and had to pick up King so he could dodge as well. She noticed that Luz was still standing around and ran towards her. “What’re you still doing here?! Go! Go!” Eda shouted as she picked up her staff and grabbed Luz.

“Eda, wait, I—” Luz tried to argue back, but failed. Eda placed Luz on top of her staff. She slapped the end of her staff, and the owl opened up and began flying away. The trio ran over to Eda and King with the Demon Tower chasing them down.

“At least Luz is out of harm’s way now.” Donald said.

“Why didn’t you put me on that staff?!” King asked, quivering.

“Looks like it’s up to us to deal with the Warden and Demon Tower.” Goofy pointed.

“Looks like it. How good are you at reacting?” Eda asked.

“We’re great at it! We’ll have to work together with your spells to [take them down!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrnCIZvcT6w)” Sora exclaimed.

Warden Wrath removed his mask, revealing his entire head to be a mouth with sharp teeth. He opened his mouth and breathed out fire. Eda drew a circle in front of her and the fire entered. She drew another circle next to her, and the fire shot back out towards Warden Wrath. He was sent flying back into the wall and broke a hole in it. He got back up, turned his hands into axes, and charged at the group. The Demon Tower’s eyes glowed red and tried to slam into Eda, but she drew a circle on the ground and jumped back. As the Demon Tower slammed onto the circle, a large owl made of rock bursted out from underneath the Demon Tower, scattering many Shadows. The trio took this opportunity and defeated as many rogue Shadows as they could, which began to finally have an impact on the size of the Demon Tower. Warden Wrath ran up to Eda, preoccupied with the Demon Tower, and tried to chop her with his axes, pincer style. Goofy blocked an axe on one side and Sora blocked the other. Warden Wrath prepared to breathe fire at Eda, but Donald jumped onto her shoulders and pointed his staff at the Warden’s mouth. Warden Wrath breathed fire, but Donald’s staff absorbed the fire. As the staff began to glow red with stored magic, Donald jumped off of Eda’s shoulders and pointed his staff at the Demon Tower, releasing the fire onto it, taking out many Shadows, decreasing its size even more. King then jumped on top of Eda’s head, then jumped onto Warden Wrath’s face and began clawing at it, distracting him and turning his hands back to normal to try and pull King off of him. With his hands back to normal, Goofy slammed his shield into his chest, launching him into the sky. Goofy then placed his shield on top of his head and Sora jumped off, reaching the height of the Warden. King jumped off of Warden Wrath and landed on Sora’s head. Sora then slammed his Keyblade into the Warden and sent him into the ground, causing the ground to crack. Sora landed and King got off of his head, and everyone regrouped.

“We’re doing amazing!” Donald encouraged them.

“Yeah we are! They don’t stand a chance!” King confirmed.

“We sure do make a good team!” Goofy pointed out.

“If we keep this up, we’ll take ’em down in no time!” Sora cheered.

“C’mon Warden, I thought you were gonna make this a hard fight!” Eda taunted.

“Do not mock me!” Warden Wrath growled as he got back up.

Warden Wrath transformed his hands into hammers and breathed fire again, but sprayed it across the group. King was short enough that it didn’t hit him, Eda jumped over the fire, Goofy blocked the fire with his shield, Donald absorbed the fire with his staff, and Sora slid underneath the fire. Donald pointed his staff at the Demon Tower and launched the fire again, but the Demon Tower swerved out of the way. The Demon Tower’s eyes glowed red and slammed into the ground, but the Shadows dispersed and all began to charge at the trio. Donald, with no magic, was quickly swarmed by the Shadows and ended up greatly hurt. Goofy tried to block the Shadows, but they surrounded him and his defenses quickly fell and he got hurt as well. Sora was holding his ground and defeated every Shadow that approached him. Eda grabbed King and drew a circle above them and created a barrier around them, stopping the Shadows from attacking them. Then, the Shadows stopped attacking them and began to quickly circle everyone. Eda dropped her barrier, grabbed King, and jumped out of the Shadow’s circle. Sora ran over to Donald and Goofy to try and protect them, but wasn’t able to. The Shadows dove into the ground and bursted upwards to reform the Demon Tower underneath the trio, launching them into the air. They flopped onto the ground and struggled to get back up, all severely injured. Eda dropped King and looked back at the damaged trio and tried to run over and help them back up. Warden Wrath cut her off and struck her with his hammers, knocking her onto the ground next to the trio. King ran over to Eda, but Warden Wrath kicked King over to her. Eda caught King and stared at Warden Wrath with hatred. The trio tried to get back up, but all they were able to do at the moment was get on their elbows. Warden Wrath walked closer to the knocked down group and began to laugh.

While Eda, King, and the trio were fighting Warden Wrath and the Demon Tower, Luz was flying on the staff, struggling to stay on. When Warden Wrath was slammed into the wall and broke it, Luz saw the prisoners she met earlier leaning to watch the fight, but didn’t leave the tower.

“Why are you guys just standing there?! This is your chance to escape!” Luz exclaimed as she flew down to the prisoners.

“The Warden will catch us, he always does…” The blue prisoner sighed.

“We belong here…” The female prisoner said in despair.

“Self-doubt is a pwison you can never escape fwom…” The short prisoner accepted her fate.

Luz looked back at Eda, King, and the trio fighting, and got inspired. “So you have a different way of doing things and a different way of seeing things. That might make you weird, but it also makes you awesome! Don’t you see that? You shouldn’t be afraid of who you are! I was afraid to be myself back home, but after seeing what they’ve all done for me and how confident they are in themselves, I’m not afraid of being weird anymore, and neither should any of you!” Luz spoke proudly. The prisoners began to smile and get inspired.

“But why are you helping us?” The female prisoner asked.

“Because us weirdos have to stick together!” Luz shouted as she put her cat hood up and got back on her staff. “And nobody should be punished for who they are! Are you with me?!” The prisoners cheered with Luz. “Now, let’s get’em!” Luz shouted as she and the prisoners charged towards Warden Wrath and the Demon Tower.

“No more running away, Owl Lady. Today I capture you once and for all!” Warden Wrath declared as he prepared to swing at Eda. Eda held King close to her to protect him and looked at the Warden with hatred. The trio got back on their feet and moved in front of Eda and King to try and protect them, but were too hurt to do anything.

Suddenly, Luz and the prisoners rallied and came charging towards the Warden. The prisoners tackled Warden Wrath and pushed him away from the group. Luz followed the prisoners on the staff, passing the group.

“Go, go, go, go!” Luz cheered as the prisoners continued to fight back against the Warden. She flew right past the group, but was too focused on the Warden.

“Luz?!” Everyone shouted. The trio were glad to see that she was okay, but Eda and King were shocked that she didn’t return to her world. The trio helped Eda and King get back up, and faced the Demon Tower.

“Go and help Luz! We’ll hold off the Demon Tower!” Donald shouted.

“But you three are too injured; you don’t stand a chance!” King argued.

“That may be, but we won’t let it hurt anyone else!” Goofy said confidently.

“We’ll be back once Luz is safe. Don’t go dying on us, got it?” Eda winked.

“Wouldn't dream of it.” Sora replied. The trio ran over to face the Demon Tower, and Eda and King followed Luz to help her face the Warden.

“I eat my own eyes!” The blue prisoner shouted as he tackled the Warden, knocking him back even more.

“I think the world is a twiangle!” The short prisoner shouted as she tripped the Warden.

“And I practice the ancient art of fanfiction!” The female prisoner shouted as she tied the Warden’s arms together. The prisoners flipped the Warden on his stomach and pinned him down, stopping him from moving.

“You! Who do you think you are?!” Warden Wrath demanded Luz as he began to breathe fire.

Luz jumped off of the staff and landed in front of the Warden. “Do not underestimate me, Warden Wrath, for I am Luz the Human, warrior of peace!” She announced as she struck a heroic pose. “Now eat this, sucker!” She pulled out a bundle of fireworks and tossed it into the air. She whacked it with Eda’s staff, launching it into the Warden’s mouth. The prisoners jumped off of the Warden and ran back over to Luz. The fireworks got stuck in the Warden’s mouth, and because of his fire breath, the fireworks became lit and set off. Many fireworks launched out of the Warden’s mouth and exploded in the air. The Warden got up and ran back to the tower with fireworks still exploding in his mouth, defeated. The prisoners cheered as the Warden retreated and Luz stood with confidence. Eda and King walked next to Luz and put their arm on Luz’s shoulder, looking at her with pride.

“Very impressive, Luz! You didn’t even need our help taking him down.” Eda complimented.

“I’ll say! That was actually one of her better breakups.” King teased.

“Again King, not a breakup!” Eda shouted.

“Hey, where are Sora, Donald, and Goofy?” Luz asked.

“They’re still dealing with that Demon Tower.” King said, nonchalantly.

“What?!” Luz exclaimed, looking around for the trio. She spotted them in front of the Demon Tower, still struggling to defeat it. “Come on, we have to help them out!”

“You have any more of those explosive things? If not, there’s basically nothing you can do.” King pointed out.

“I don’t care, I’m not going to abandon them! They helped all of us out, and now we’re going to help them out! Us weirdos have to stick together, right?!” Luz argued.

“You’ve got guts, Luz, that’s for sure.” Eda smirked. “All right then, let’s go and help those misfits!” Eda, King, and Luz ran towards the trio, who were out of breath and struggling to keep fighting.

“Great! You three are still alive!” Eda chuckled.

“Just barely though…” Goofy gasped for air. “Gawrsh, it’s never been this difficult…”

“Looks like it got much shorter than when we left.” King complimented.

“Not really… Some sort of explosive hit the Demon Tower and took out some of them…” Donald clarified.

“That was me, but I don’t have anything else that can help stop them…” Luz said sadly.

“Don’t worry about it… We can take it down together!” Sora tried to act confident. “We just… need a minute before we keep fighting…”

“Don’t worry, we’ll hold them off!” Luz said, doing another heroic pose.

“Go and recover, we’ll be the distraction this time!” Eda said as she took her staff back from Luz.

“Don’t take too long, or else we’ll die!” King shouted, jokingly. He— he is joking, of course. Probably. Together, Eda, King, and Luz charged towards the Demon Tower and lured it away. The trio looked at each other with discomfort and panted. Suddenly, Goofy’s shield began to glow, and the trio’s faces lit up with hope.

“Great news, fellas! My shield’s ready!” Goofy exclaimed.

“Took you long enough!” Donald criticized.

“Alright, now let’s take care of the Demon Tower!” Sora said, determined.

Goofy raised his shield up, and Sora and Donald began to float. Sora floated to Goofy’s left side and Donald floated to Goofy’s right side, forming Trinity Guard. They put their hands on Goofy’s shoulders and landed on the ground. When they landed, a circular barrier appeared in front of them, and they slowly started walking towards the Demon Tower. They walked past Eda, King, and Luz, who backed off when they saw the trio walking closer, wondering what they were planning. The Demon Tower’s eyes glowed red and charged towards the trio. The trio swung the shield and barrier to the right, ramming into the Demon Tower and redirecting it into the wall. Some Shadows dispersed when they hid the wall, and Eda, King, and Luz defeated as many as possible. The Demon Tower reformed and tried to charge the trio again, but got redirected again, releasing more Shadows. The Demon Tower was getting smaller and began to act desperately. The Demon Tower dispersed and the individual Shadows charged towards both teams. Eda created another barrier around King, Luz, and herself, stopping the Shadows from hurting them. The trio swung the shield and barrier quickly and wildly, defeating any Shadow that tried to swarm them. The Shadows stopped attacking and started circling both teams. Eda dropped her barrier and opened her staff, allowing Eda, King, and Luz to fly out of the swarm. For the trio, the shield began to glow red and caught on fire. They charged ahead with great speed and broke out of the Shadow’s encircling before they bursted upwards. Eda, King, and Luz flew towards the trio and flipped underneath the staff, motioning them to get on the staff. The trio jumped on the staff, with Goofy and his shield in the front, Donald behind Goofy, and Sora behind Donald. They looped around and started flying towards the Demon Tower, which faced the group and tried to swallow them. The shield glowed red and the barrier in front of them grew larger and protected the entire staff and everyone underneath. “CHARGE!!” Everyone shouted as they flew at full speed towards the Demon Tower, piercing through it and destroying almost every Shadow. The few Shadows that survived dispersed and ran away. Goofy’s shield disappeared and the trio grabbed each other's hand as Sora summoned his Keyblade. Sora hooked his Keyblade onto the staff and swung over as Eda, King, and Luz got back up to the top of the staff. The prisoners cheered for the group as they saw them fly over.

“Well, that finally takes care of that.” Eda said happily. “Alright, let’s bounce before any more monsters fall in love with me.” The group left the Conformatorium and made their way back to The Owl House.

“I can’t believe we did that! That was incredible!!” Luz exclaimed.

“We really do make a great team!” Goofy complimented.

“That’ll teach those guards for trying to steal my powers ever again!” King said, clutching his crown close to his body.

“Glad we could get it back for you!” Donald said happily.

“No offense to you three, but I thought you would be a lot stronger.” Eda pointed out.

“No, you’re definitely right. There’s something wrong with my powers…” Sora confessed.

“Do ya think it’s because of The Ultimate Price?” Goofy asked.

“You must’ve gotten really messed up from going into The Final World.” Donald said sadly.

“‘The Ultimate Price?’ ‘The Final World?’ Can I have any of those?” King asked, thirsty for power.

“More mysterious backstory!” Luz gasped with excitement.

“Gees, how much have you three not told us?!” Eda roller her eyes.

“Trust me, there’s a lot we haven’t told you three, and it might be for the best.” Sora confessed.

“Like those other monsters that attacked us in front of the door?” King pointed out.

“They’re different; they travel to different worlds as well.” Goofy defended.

“Besides, we need to uphold the World Order.” Donald protested.

“Wait, there are laws that apply between worlds?!” Luz asked, fascinated.

“Oh please, I hardly listen to this world’s laws. What makes you think I’m gonna listen to another world’s laws?” Eda confessed.

“Well, you already know about other worlds existing.” Sora pondered. “I guess there isn’t much harm in telling you.”

They approached The Owl House and got off the staff. They walked up to Hooty, who greeted them.

“How’d you all do?” Hooty asked.

“I’ve got my crown of power back!” King exclaimed as he put the crown back on.

“It was a rough fight, but we pulled through.” Goofy admitted.

“We sure teached the Warden a lesson!” Donald boasted.

“I doubt they’ll mess with us again.” Luz said confidently.

“Now, I think it’s time that we rest…” Sora said, holding his wounds.

“All right Hooty, let us in. It’s been a rough day…” Eda sighed.

Hooty smiled and opened the door, allowing the group to walk inside. Eda stopped them all in the main room.

“Well, a deal’s a deal. Let’s get you home now Luz.” Eda said as she snapped her fingers. The key she gave to Luz earlier floated out of her bag and into Eda’s hand. She clicked the eye in the center of the key and the door reappeared behind them. Luz faced the door, both with excitement and dread. She put her arms around her body, her arms shaking and was indecisive. She turned back to face the group and noticed King messing with his crown. She walked towards King and pulled out a bobblehead from her bag and took off the little toy crown it had.

“I know you already have your crown, but I want you to have this.” Luz handed the tiny crown to King. “Keep it safe in case you lose the crown we got back. And… it’s something to remember me by.”

“Yes! More power!!” King cackled happily. “Thank you Luz, now I’m unstoppable! You there, plant! You are now under my command.” He began to abuse his quote-unquote “power.” Everyone smiled at King having fun. Eda turned around and grabbed a book off the table.

“Oh, and don’t forget this.” Eda handed Luz the same book she had at the store where they first met, but there was another paper as well.

“Well, I guess this is goodbye Luz.” Goofy said sadly.

“It was fun fighting alongside you!” Donald admitted.

“We’ll always be your friends, and you’ll be a part of all our hearts.” Sora said as he clenched his chest.

Luz began to walk towards the door, still in despair about leaving everyone behind. She stared at the paper with anguish, then switched to her book. She stopped in front of the door and continued to stare at her book and paper. When she looked back at the door, she noticed a mirror behind it and stared in fascination. She looked at her book one last time, then herself, and her face sparked with hope. She turned back to the group.

“No. I don’t want to go back home!” Luz declared. Everyone looked at Luz with shock and confusion. “Look, I know you got your head cut off, you almost lost your most prized possession, you three nearly sacrificed yourselves for us, and we started some kind of prison riot, but this was the most fun I’ve ever had!” Luz admitted. “I don’t fit in at home… You don’t fit in here… And you three don’t really fit in anywhere… If I stay, we could not fit in together.” She offered. She looked at the paper with anger and crumpled it up. “I am NOT going back to summer camp!” She said as she threw away the paper.

“What’s summer camp? What are we even talking about here?” Eda laughed nervously. The trio and King tilted their heads in confusion.

“I want to stay and become a witch like you and Azura!” She exclaimed as she held up her book.

“What?! All right, that’s crazy! Humans can’t become witches.” Eda dismissed Luz’s request.

“Gawrsh Eda, you don’t have to shut Luz down so rudely…” Goofy addressed.

“Yeah, give her a chance!” Donald argued.

“After all, you did say that you owe her.” Sora pointed out.

“They’re right Eda!” Luz fought back. “Maybe humans haven’t become witches yet because they haven’t tried it before. And besides, Sora’s living proof that a human can learn magic! And look, if you think teaching me to become a witch is too much for your favor, then I’ll do anything you want.”

“Let her stay!” King agreed. “She can make us snacks.”

Eda smiled and picked up King in her arms. “Well, I could use a hand keeping this goofball out of the cupboards.” She admitted. “All right then. I’ll teach you how to be a witch, but you have to work for me before you learn any spells. Deal?” She asked as she extended her arm. Luz ignored her arm and hugged both of them.

“Too tight! Too tight!!” King screamed as he tried to squirm away.

“What’re you doing right now?” Eda asked, confused.

“It’s a hug! It’s how you show your appreciation and happiness towards people.” Luz explained as she let them go.

“Please never do that again.” Eda said, annoyed.

Luz looked back at the trio, who were happy for her. “But… What are you three going to do? You’re not going to leave us already, are you?” She asked sadly.

“Of course not! We’re not going to leave our new friends already!” Goofy said reassuringly.

“And Sora could really use some training.” Donald teased.

“Yeah, Donald’s right…” Sora admitted. “Look Eda, I know this is sudden, but can we stick around as well? I’ve lost a lot of my powers, and I think staying here and training with you is the best way to regain my strength. I know it’s a big favor to ask for, but in return, we’ll help you out with both your house and magic, and we’ll tell you what you want to know about us. Heck, we don’t have to live here if it’s too much, we got the Gummiship right around the corner if it’s too tight for room…! Is it a deal?”

Eda looked at Luz, who was nodding and giving a massive smile. “Alright, fine. You three can stick around as well…” She sighed heavily. “You can start explaining tomorrow, I’m too tired to deal with whatever nonsense is about to come from your mouths or beaks or whatever right now.”

The trio went in to hug Eda and King, but she put her hand up and stopped them. She noticed how sad it made Luz, and felt guilty. She sighed and moved her hands to accept the hug. The trio hugged Eda and King much lighter than Luz did, until she joined in the hug as well. When they stopped hugging, the trio stood together in a triangle.

“Us weirdos have to stick together!” Goofy said as he put his hand in the center.

“Three half pints make a whole!” Donald said as he put his hand in the center.

“All for one, and one for all!” Sora said as he put his head in the center.

Luz ran over to the trio with joy and placed her hand in the center as well. King walked over to the trio as well and put his hand in the center. Everyone looked at Eda and waited for her to join in. She gave a genuine smirk at the sight of everyone together, and walked over and placed her hand in the center. Everyone lifted their hand upwards and dispersed.

“Come on Luz, I’ll bring you to a room you can stay in.” Eda said as she walked towards the stairs. King followed right behind Eda.

“Thank you so much!” Luz exclaimed as she caught up with Eda and King. She turned back and saw the trio staying in the main room, still injured. “But what about you three? You’re still injured, and where will you stay?”

“We’re gonna stay down here for a while, then return to the Gummiship.” Goofy said, though he did look at the couch like he’d rather stay there.

“Our magic is almost back, then we’ll heal ourselves.” Donald reassured Luz.

“Don’t worry, we’re going to be fine. Have a good night, and we’ll see you all tomorrow!” Sora said.

The trio waved to Eda, King, and Luz as they went upstairs. Sora and Donald summoned their weapons and placed them together, turning them green as plant bells appeared over the trio’s head. Together, they cast Cure and healed all of their wounds. Now that they were fixed up, they sat on the couch together and rested. Sora laid down on the couch with his head resting on a couch arm, Goofy sat on the remaining cushion and rested his head on the back of the couch, and Donald sat on the ground and rested his head on the end of the cushion. They didn’t mean to, but after a long and eventful day, the trio drifted off to sleep easily. Tomorrow was the first day they would spend with their friends Eda, King, and Luz, and hopefully Sora would be able to regain the powers he lost from his sacrifice and time in The Final World.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes; I hope you all enjoyed this chapter of the story! Thank you all for the support with Chapter 1, I was never expecting it to get that much notice! All of the fight scenes were improvised, but I had a lot of fun writing them. There are some references to previous Kingdom Hearts games, as well as a few new ideas. Also, yes, once again, Sora lost most of his powers and has to regain them, but I think The Boiling Isles is the perfect place to regain the strength. I know the season finale for The Owl House aired last night, and although I’m looking forward to season 2, it’ll be the perfect time to make more chapters. I wasn’t expecting Episode 1 to be split up into two chapters, so it’ll be a long time until I finish Season 1, especially since I will be adding in my own chapters that don’t take place in episodes. So, in honor of the season 1 finale of The Owl House, I will be uploading a new chapter every other Saturday when The Owl House would normally air (around 9 pm EST). Even though it’ll take a long time to finish, I hope you all will stay with me to the end of this journey. Once again, thank you all so much for the support and I look forward to uploading the next chapter!
> 
> (Here’s a bonus line I wrote as a joke)
> 
> The trio and Luz nodded, but before they could turn around to leave, a large figure with yellow glowing eyes walked up behind them.
> 
> “I think not!” Xehanort shouted as he swung the χ-Blade, chopping off Eda’s head.


	3. Chosen Fate

Sora, Donald, and Goofy were sleeping peacefully on the couch after a difficult first day on The Boiling Isles. The sun shone through the windows, but everyone stayed asleep. Suddenly, Sora heard a muffled voice and thumping coming from somewhere upstairs. Sora opened his eyes and slowly sat up. He looked around, still drowsy, to see what was causing the noise, but all he noticed was Donald and Goofy sleeping on the couch and the surroundings of The Owl House. Honestly surprised Eda let them sleep there after all, Sora quickly forgot all about the sounds and yawned nonchalantly as he began to lay back down and fall asleep again. When he rested his head on the arm of the couch, he found Luz leaning over him with a black hat and a massive grin on her face.

“Whoa!!” Sora shouted as he shot back up, completely startled. His outburst woke up Donald and Goofy, who jumped off the couch and frantically looked around.

“Ah! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you!” Luz apologized. Sora got off the couch and turned around, then noticed that it was just Luz.

“Oh… Good morning Luz.” Sora hunched over as he began to calm down. “You really scared us doing that!”

“Striking fear into those you trusted. What a great start to the day!” King declared as he walked over to the kitchen.

“Gawrsh, you sure seem happy this morning.” Goofy noticed Luz was practically bouncing.

“Of course I am! This is my first day in training to become a witch!” Luz reminded them.

“Don’t forget Sora, you have some training to do as well!” Donald teased.

“Yeah, yeah, I remember…” Sora rolled his eyes as he stretched. “I feel like I do this way too often…”

“You know she’s not awake yet, right?” King pointed out. “It’s a bad idea to wake her up. You better wait until she wakes up on her own. Trust me…” He shuddered as he spoke from personal experience.

“Hey Luz, what are you wearing?” Donald asked, noticing her strange clothes.

“I found these upstairs. Aren’t they just the perfect witch clothes?” Luz asked as she showcased her robe and hat.

“They definitely fit you!” Goofy complimented.

“Say, you even look like Yen Sid!” Donald pointed out.

“I-is that a good thing?” Luz asked nervously.

“Don’t worry Luz, it’s a compliment.” Sora reassured her. “Our master is a very important wizard, and you’re dressed pretty closely to how he does.”

“Ugh… you guys trained with a wizard? Can’t imagine how painful that must’ve been.” King groaned.

Suddenly, they heard footsteps coming from upstairs. Luz ran over to the stairs as quickly as possible, more excited than ever. The trio walked over to the stairs and stood behind Luz, happy to know that Eda was awake. King stayed in the kitchen and got something to eat, uninterested in dealing with them this early in the morning. Eda approached the staircase, wearing a purple shirt, blue skirt, and yellow bunny slippers. She yawned and rubbed her eyes, eventually noticing everyone watching her.

“Good morning, Eda the Owl Lady.” Luz greeted. The trio simply waved at her. “I am ready for my first day of Witch Apprenticeship!”

“Who are you all of you, again?” Eda asked as she picked bugs out of her hair. Everyone looked at her with sadness and confusion. How could she forget everything that happened? Eda walked down the stairs and passed everyone, making her way towards the kitchen. Luz followed closely behind her, but the trio stayed back.

“Do ya really think she forgot us all?” Goofy asked, worried.

“I doubt it. Looks like she just woke up.” Donald pointed out.

“I can still feel her connection in my heart. There’s no way she forgot about us.” Sora reassured them. The trio walked into the kitchen to join up with the others.

“Remember me? Luz?” She asked nervously. Eda snapped her fingers and a cup came flying through the door. The trio dodged the cup, but it hit Luz in the back of her head before Eda caught it. “We freed the oppressed and defeated the evil warden and all those crazy monsters together with Sora, Donald, and Goofy? … Yesterday?” She tried to rejog Eda’s memory.

“Kid, lay off the details.” Eda finally responded. “I haven’t even had my cup of apple blood yet.”

“You mean apple juice?” Luz asked, confused.

“No.” Eda said seriously. She opened the refrigerator and poured something into her cup. She walked over and sat on the table, while King poked at a yellow blob with eyes in it. She began to drink out of her cup, and she gave a tiny smirk.

“Is that apple blood really that important to you?” Goofy asked.

“Yeah it is. I’m basically still dead without this in the morning.” Eda clarified. King nodded his head with fear in his eyes.

“What is that ‘apple blood’ stuff made out of?” Donald asked.

“The blood of an apple. How was that not obvious?” Eda said bluntly. The trio looked at her mug in confusion, especially Sora since he spent so much time cooking with Little Chef.

“Well, I’m glad you still remember all of us.” Sora admitted.

“Oh trust me, I could never forget you three headaches no matter how hard I try…” Eda sighed as she rubbed her head.

“Come on, teach me some spells! When do I get a magic staff? Was I supposed to bring my own runes? Do you have a dangerous magical quest for me?!” Luz bombarded Eda with anticipation.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow down there, kid. Being a witch doesn’t happen overnight.” Eda calmed Luz down as she held onto her mug closely so it wouldn’t spill.

“Maybe we should wait a little longer so Eda can wake up.” Goofy suggested.

“I could use the training as well, and I still need a bit of time before I’m ready…” Sora yawned as he tried to fix his spiky hair. What his definition of “fixed” looked like is anyone’s guess.

“These two are right, I’m not getting anything done until I’m awake.” Eda admitted as she took another sip from her mug. Eda noticed Luz’s unusual clothes. “Uhh, kid, why’re you wrapped in a bathrobe and wearing the dirtiest traffic cone I’ve ever seen?”

Luz took off her “hat” and blew on it, getting rid of the black dust on it and revealing it to be an orange traffic cone. Luz stared at the cone and robes, embarrassed about what she was wearing. King laughed and Eda gave a smirk, but the trio just gave a comforting look at Luz.

“But a magic staff, huh? You really want one?” Eda asked as she stopped drinking from her mug, with some apple blood left on her lips. The trio gave a quiet laugh when they saw the leftover apple blood.

“More than anything!” Luz shouted as her eyes sparkled with joy.

Eda wiped her face and put down her mug. “Magic staff, come to me!” She declared as she extended her arm out towards the door. The staff didn’t appear, but there was a lot of crashing coming from the hallway. One by one, everyone turned towards the entrance of the kitchen, confused by what was happening.

“What’s all that banging noise?” Goofy asked, concerned.

“I think the staff is running into a bunch of stuff…” Donald guessed.

“Sorry, I didn’t think it would be this difficult getting your staff…” Luz apologized.

“Hopefully nothing important gets broken.” Sora said.

“Eda, where’d you put your staff this time?” King questioned.

“I don’t remember…” Eda admitted.

Suddenly, Eda’s staff came flying through the door frame at a high speed. The staff soared towards Eda’s hand, but Eda failed to react in time. Instead, the staff smacked her in the head and fell to the ground. She sighed as it hit the ground, so she picked it up. She twirled it in her hand a few times before slamming it on the ground, striking a confident pose, or at the very least attempting to act professional. “It’s early.” Eda tried to defend herself. Everyone laughed, but Eda wasn’t amused at all.

“Now, witches are awarded their staffs from school.” Eda stated as she gestured to her own staff. “With me as your teacher, you’ll be taking a different approach.” She walked away from everyone and grabbed a large brown bag from the back of the kitchen. She brought the bag over to Luz and dropped it, making a lot of clanging noises. Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Luz opened the bag, revealing it to contain a bunch of potions. “You’ll have to work for your staff.” Eda explained. “Now go and put on something that doesn’t look ridiculous, it’ll make working a lot easier. You three weirdos as well.”

Luz gave an eager smile and ran out of the kitchen to quickly change. Eda continued to drink her apple blood as the trio looked deeper into the bag of potions. They found some bizarre potions in there, but didn’t bother asking Eda questions since they remembered they still owe her an explanation.

“Wow, these are some crazy potions…!” Sora said with amazement as he reached farther into the bag.

“These potions sorta put the ones we have to shame.” Goofy admitted, despite the fact that he has no idea what any of those potions did.

“Hey, wait a minute… Sora, why didn’t you use any potions during our fights yesterday. Or any ethers?!” Donald shouted.

“Yeah, that would’ve made it much easier to get my crown!” King agreed.

“You’re right, why didn’t I use any of them yesterday…?” Sora questioned himself.

“How did you forget?!” King asked, baffled.

“You’re really vague about your potions, but what the heck’s an ‘ether’?” Eda asked as she finished drinking her apple blood.

“The only potions we have heal us, but they’re still useful.” Goofy clarified.

“We use ethers to help replenish our magic since we can’t cast magic forever.” Donald explained.

“Huh… maybe I could bootleg some of those potions and ethers of yours. Though we don’t exactly ‘run out’ of magic, so how can I make ethers?” Eda pondered with a look of mischief in her eyes, thinking about the potential profit.

Sora put his hands into one of his many pockets to try and find his supply. Empty. Sora pulled his hands out of his pockets with a look of confusion. He put his hands into another set of pockets. Again, empty. Sora was getting nervous now and frantically looked through the rest of his pockets for anything. Boy he had a lot of pockets. Everyone stared at Sora with confusion, it shouldn’t have taken him this long to find a single potion and ether. Sora finally stopped, returning empty-handed.

“I… I don’t have anything on me…” Sora said in despair. Everyone looked at him like he was insane.

“Did ya lose everything when you went to The Final World?” Goofy asked. Sora shrugged, but it felt like the most probable reason.

“Do you at least have the synthesis materials so we can make more?” Donald asked. Sora shook his head and Donald sighed sadly, knowing they couldn’t create anything they lost.

“How do you lose literally EVERYTHING you have on you?!” Eda shouted, baffled. And here she thought these three couldn’t be more stupid…

“Is there anything you do have?” King asked, trying to lift Sora’s spirits.

Sora went through his pockets one last time, but was more thorough. His eyes sparked with hope a few times when reaching into various pockets. When he finished going through his pockets, he placed everything on the table. Everyone gathered around to see what Sora had.

“What’re these yellow diamond things, and why do you have so many?” Eda questioned as she picked one up.

“Hey, our munny!” Goofy exclaimed. “It’s a good thing you held onto all that!”

“Wow, this black box of yours looks like the blue box that Luz was using last night.” King noted as he picked it up. Eda looked at King with doubt, wondering why he knew that.

“That’s our Gummiphone. We can use it to communicate with our friends that travel to other worlds as well.” Donald explained.

The only other things that were on the table were weirdly colored crystals with different designs on them. “Well, at least I still have my Heartbinders.” Sora said as he picked everything back up and put them away. They heard footsteps coming from the door-frame, and Luz came running in with her normal clothes on.

“Did I miss anything…?” Luz panted. She clearly ran as quickly as she could, eager to get to work.

“No, not really.” Eda admitted. “Now follow me, I’ll explain your work for today.” She began to walk out of the kitchen. Luz picked up the bag of potions and followed Eda, with the trio following behind them.

“You see, Luz, I run a few businesses. On weekends, I offer rare human treasures that Owlbert drags over from your side of the realm. She picked up a sword that was on a wall and pressed a button.

“I shall smite my enemies! Ages six to eleven.” The sword said as it lit up. Luz laughed at the toy sword, but the trio looked at it with confusion. A talking weapon? Eda tossed it away and continued walking.

“Hold on, Eda. Who’s Owlbert?” The trio asked, never hearing that name before.

“Oh right, you three never met Owlbert.” Eda recalled. She held her staff in front of everyone, and the owl’s eyes opened up. Then, the owl flew off the staff! It circled around everyone and landed on Eda’s shoulder. “This is Owlbert.” She gestured to the owl. “I’m sure you two remember each other, right Luz?”

“I do! It’s nice to meet you again Owlbert!” Luz said happily as she rubbed Owlbert’s head. Owlbert hooted and made a friendly face at Luz. Owlbert then turned towards the trio, who recognized them as well. The trio waved at Owlbert, and it hooted in return.

“Alright, that’s enough for now. Remember, you’ve got a job to take care of.” Eda reminded Luz.

“Okay, I’ll see you later Owlbert!” Lu waved at Owlbert. “So wait, what exactly is my job if you’re not selling stuff today?”

“You’re holding it, kid.” Eda gestured towards the bag. “On most days, I sell only the finest homemade elixirs and potions.” Luz opened the bag and pulled out a bottle with a yellow liquid and a green label.

“‘Snake Oil’?” Luz questioned as she read the label.

“Nobody wants an un-oiled snake!” Eda stated with pride. “Now come upstairs, I’ll show you where you’ll be making your deliveries.” She made her way upstairs, and everyone followed. They made their way to a balcony, overlooking a scary and monstrous town.

“Alright kid, today you’ll deliver packages and sell potions to that town over there: Bonesborough.” Eda said as she gestured to the town. “You’ll have to be careful. I have rivals everywhere who’d love to take me and my business down, and since you’re staying here, that means taking you down along with it. You wanted a dangerous quest? Sister, brother, and whatever kind you two are supposed to be, you’ve got one!”

“I won’t let you down, Miss Eda!” Luz shouted as she turned around and saluted Eda. Unfortunately, as she turned around, the bag of potions went over the edge of the balcony and slipped out of Luz’s hand. It fell to the ground and landed with a loud crash. Everyone looked over the balcony, worried about everything being intact.

“I’m sure.” Eda said with no emotion. She drew a small circle with her finger, and the bag came floating back up. Luz grabbed the bag with both hands this time, making sure she wouldn’t drop it again. She gave Eda a nervous smile, but she had no reaction. Eda walked back downstairs, and everyone followed. Eda made her way to the front door and stopped and opened the front door. She then turned around and began pushing Luz out to the door. “Alright, there’ll be a list of customers to deliver to. And remember, never befriend a man in sandals and always measure twice, cut once.” Eda instructed. Luz looked at her with confusion and began to speak, but got cut off. “Good luck!” Eda shouted as she slammed the door. That left the trio standing in the middle of the room.

“So what now?” Donald asked.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got a special task for you three as well.” Eda reassured them.

“Are we gonna explain more about other worlds to ya?” Goofy asked.

“No, at least not yet. I’m sure Luz’ll want to hear those crazy stories of yours, so we’ll save that till she gets back.” Eda clarified.

“Will we start our training to regain my strength?” Sora asked in anticipation.

“Of course not! I have no idea what you’re capable of or even what you’ve even lost!” Eda threw her hands in the air. “Besides, Luz’ll definitely want to see more magic.”

“Can you guys keep it down?! I just found the perfect spot and I’m trying to sleep!” King said angrily from on top of a chest right next to the door. The trio looked at him apologetically, but Eda looked at him with annoyance.

“Oh, sorry King.” Eda said sarcastically. “I hate to interrupt your power nap, but you have to go with her.”

“What?! Why do I have to go?! These three slept in here for free! I actually worked to sleep here!” King pouted. Eda glared at the trio with anger and they gave a nervous smile back.

“We’re really sorry Miss Eda! It was an accident, we promise!” Goofy said, worried.

“We were tired from fighting that we fell asleep almost instantly.” Donald tried to explain.

“We won’t do it again; we’ll go back to the Gummiship from now on.” Sora pleaded.

“Yeah yeah, I get it. Last night was rough for all of us. Heck, I passed out pretty quickly last night as well.” Eda said empathetically as her anger quickly vanished. “But now, you’re definitely not getting out of work.”

“So what’s our job?” The trio asked as they tilted their heads in curiosity.

“You three will also be going with her to make deliveries.” Eda declared.

“Wait, if they’re going with her, then why do I need to go as well?!” King shouted, perplexed.

“We all know she’s either going to get lost or eaten if she goes alone. Probably both.” Eda admitted.

“No I won’t!” Luz shouted all of a sudden, startling everyone. She leaned against the window against the door, listening in on their entire conversation. Eda drew a circle and the curtain above the window fell and covered it.

“Sure, these three are powerful and can easily protect her, but there’s no way they know their way around Bonesborough.” Eda said bluntly. The trio nodded in agreement. “And let’s not forget: you work for me, too, unless you want to start paying rent.” She bribed him.

“ARGH… FINE!” King shouted as he stamped his feet on the ground. He jumped off the chest and stormed out of the house.

“Go with them and make sure they don’t get killed by whatever strange monsters you three always attract. Do that, and I’ll forgive you for sleeping in my house.” Eda stated.

“You can count on us!” The trio said as they saluted Eda. They made their way out of the house and joined up with Luz and King.

“Be back by nightfall or risk mortal peril!” Eda shouted jokingly. Probably. She slammed the door shut.

“Have a nice trip all of you.” Hooty said.

“Ugh… let’s just get this over with.” King sighed as he walked away. The trio and Luz waved goodbye to Hooty and followed King into Bonesborough. Luz had a massive grin on her face, excited to start her dangerous and magical “quest”. The trio stayed on the lookout for any Heartless, Nobodies, or even guards that would try to stop them. Luz reached into the bag and pulled out a piece of paper with a bunch of strange names on them and a potion name next to them.

They walked through the open plains for a while before they reached the town they entered before: Bonesborough. They passed through a stone arch and saw many strange monsters walking around. Luz and the trio stared at all the monsters with fascination, never seeing anything so bizarre yet intriguing.

“Hey! It’s rude to stare.” King said, breaking out Luz and the trio out of their curiosity trance.

“Sorry, we didn’t mean to be rude about it.” Goofy apologized.

“We’re still getting used to this world and its people.” Donald admitted.

“It’s pretty creepy, but fascinating to see how the people in this world are different from other worlds.” Sora said.

“I mean, I’ve only seen places like this in my dreams. It’s incredible!” Luz said energetically. “Sora and I are the only humans here, right?”

“Haven’t seen any others.” King said unenthusiastically.

“Well, Donald, Goofy, and I came here on our own free will, but you kinda got forced into coming here, didn’t you?” Sora asked.

“I really did! There must be a reason that I came here, right?” Luz began to get excited as she put down the bag of potions. “Why am I here? What if I, Luz Noceda, average teen, actually had… a predetermined path of greatness?! Just like Azura!!” She shouted, making a huge scene.

“Who knows? Maybe you did come here for a reason.” Goofy said, encouraging Luz.

“Yeah, like how Sora was destined to fight the 13 Darknesses.” Donald recalled.

“See?! Even you guys came here for a reason: to regain your powers after a long and arduous battle took a grueling toll on all of you! There has to be a reason that me, a normal human, is in such a magical world!” Luz declared. Sora was about to explain more about his “destiny” and his struggles, but King started talking first.

“Oh please, did Azura’s path to greatness involve her delivering boil cream?” King asked sarcastically as he pulled out a potion that read BOIL B’ GONE.

“I may be delivering packages today, but tomorrow I’ll be earning the respect of everyone on The Boiling Isles with my magical powers!” Luz said confidently as she struck a pose.

“Maybe! It took me years before I started training to be Captain of the Royal Knights.” Goofy remembered.

“Yeah, and it took me forever to convince Daisy to allow me to become the Royal Magician.” Donald recalled.

“I was very clumsy when I first started using the Keyblade, but after some time, I started to get used to it.” Sora admitted as he summoned the Keyblade.

“Right! I already have a mentor, so I’ll learn powerful magic in no time!” Luz said confidently. “Then I’ll have the respect of everyone on The Boiling Isles!”

“Yeah, good luck with that.” King rolled his eyes. “The Boiling Isles is nothing but a cesspool of despair.”

“More like a cesspool of delight.” Luz clarified as she picked up the bag of potions. She started looking for people to sell potions to and ran up to almost everyone she saw. Their reactions were… not what she was hoping for. People often screamed and looked at her with disgust when they saw she was human. A lot of monsters even had the same reaction towards Sora as well. It made delivering packages and selling potions a very difficult and uncomfortable job to complete.

The group ran into a few Heartless every now and then, but they were taken care of as if they were nothing. They ran into some Soldiers, Large Bodies, and Bandits, but they never stood a chance against the trio. They hoped that fighting the Heartless would help cheer up Luz by seeing their power and magic, but it seemed to put her in a worse mood. The Heartless just reminded her of how all the people in Bonesborough treat her with such hostility and that it wasn’t the magical experience she was hoping for.

They continued to deliver packages to houses and sell potions to strangers they met, treated with the same disgust as before. When they only had one package left, they stopped by a street vendor that was selling food. King ordered food for himself, but no one else wanted to eat. They sat down at a corner and waited for King to finish eating so he could give them directions to the final house.

“Well, I know I’ve had enough delight for one day.” King said as he finished eating.

“Yeah, I’m ready to get out of here.” Donald agreed.

“The people here are way more hostile than I thought they would be…” Sora said, dejected.

“Sorry this quest wasn’t what you were expecting Luz…” Goofy apologized, sympathetically.

“I thought being a human in a magical world would make me special.” Luz said as she pulled out her book from inside the bag. “But apparently, it just makes everyone want to scream at me… or eat me.” She shook off a strange butterfly creature that was attached to her elbow. She flipped through her book with sorrow. “At this point, Azura had already been sent on an enchanted quest. Even you three have a quest-granting wizard! Where’s my quest-granting wizard?!”

“Our wizard was a Keyblade Master.” Goofy pointed out.

“Honestly, he didn’t teach us. He just sorta gave information and told us to continue fighting.” Donald clarified.

“Yeah, I’ll be honest: Yen Sid wasn’t a great teacher. Sure, he gave us ‘quests’ to do, but they were just keeping the balance between light and darkness, which we were already doing. Actually, he didn’t teach me anything about wielding the Keyblade! I’m self-taught!” Sora realized as he started to get angry. Donald and Goofy laughed, understanding Sora’s frustration, King laughed at Sora’s pain, and Luz gave a smile, but it faded away quickly.

“But you three actually went on magical quests, and I’m… I’m just doing chores…” Luz sulked.

“Sure, we visited many worlds, fought a ton of monsters, and made a bunch of friends, but I never really asked for any of it. It was all sort of… entrusted upon me all of a sudden.” Sora stated. Luz looked at him with curiosity.

“Yeah! For Donald and I, His Majesty went missing and we had to find him and the Keyblade wielder, who turned out to be Sora. In a sense, we were just doing his chores too… Then we had to find His Majesty again.” Goofy explained.

“Once we did find His Majesty, things kept getting out of hand, so we stayed and fought by his side! Sure, it was fun, but it all started out of nowhere.” Donald recalled.

“So what, should I just wait around and do what I’m told right now? I don’t understand, am I chosen or not? ” Luz asked, confused.

“Well, you certainly are special for going into an entirely different world.” Goofy said reassuringly.

“But did you know you would travel into a different world?” Donald asked.

“Everyone has a fate, but it never reveals itself until it already happens, and it won’t happen if you just stand around and wait for it to happen.” Sora spoke from experience.

“I guess you’re right…” Luz accepted defeat.

“Besides Luz, no one here is as well-dressed as you.” King pointed out. Sora cleared his throat in protest, but was ignored.

“This has been such a rough day…” Luz said in despair. She put her book back in the bag and carried the bag over her shoulder. “Let’s just deliver this last package and go home…” 

“Good idea. Now, let me see that address.” King requested. Luz pulled out the piece of paper with the addresses out of her pocket and handed it to King. “Oh, I know where this is! It’s really close by!” King said, eager to get this over with. He began to walk away, but Sora stopped him.

“Hold on, where exactly is the final address?” Sora asked.

“It’s at the end of the seventh alleyway on the right.” King pointed down the road. “But why’re you asking where it is? This is the final address, yet the first time you’re asking about the location.” He asked suspiciously.

“I noticed a vendor we passed not far back that was selling maps. Since the final address is close by, maybe we can go and buy some maps.” Sora answered.

“Why would you want to get a map when I know everything around here?! Wait…” King’s eyes widened. “Yes, that’s perfect! Go and get your maps! That way I won’t have to drag you four all over the place!” He ordered the trio.

“Sounds good. We’ll meet you at the address.” Sora said. The trio turned and walked back the way they came while Luz and King walked towards the address. Sora put his hood on as they made their way to the map vendor to make the purchase less awkward.

They made it to the vendor, which was owned by a tall yellow monster with several arms. They were examining pieces of paper and drawing on completely new ones, most likely creating copies of their own maps. When they noticed the trio, they looked up and continued to draw.

“What do you three want?” The monster asked, irritated.

“Do you have any maps of Bonesborough and The Boiling Isles?” Sora asked sheepishly.

“Of course I do. What of it?” The monster said, almost insulted.

“Well, we would like to purchase some maps.” Goofy said kindly.

The monster looked at the trio, baffled. “Wait, what? You actually want a physical map?!”

“Why else would we be asking to buy some?” Donald pointed out.

“You three better not be playing some sort of prank.” The monster said, skeptical.

“I don’t really understand… why would buying some maps be a prank?” Goofy asked, confused.

The monster stopped drawing completely. “Wait, you three are serious? You do know you can get a map on your scrolls free with Penstagram, right?!”

“Uhh… What’s a ‘Penstagram’?” Donald asked, also confused.

“Wow… have you three been living under a rock?” The monster asked, dumbfounded. “Whatever… I’m not gonna turn away a profit. So since you’re genuine, how many maps do you want?”

“Let’s see… we’ll need a map each for the three of us, and another one for Luz, so we’ll take four maps of both Bonesborough and The Boiling Isles.” Sora confirmed.

“You three really are strange, but whatever, business is business.” The monster shrugged as they looked underneath the counter. They came back holding eight maps, each with a price of 100 snails on them. “That’s a total of 800 snails.” The monster stated. Sora reached into one of his pockets to pull out the yellow diamonds they use as munny, but as he pulled them out, they transformed into paper snails. He handed over the money and was given the maps. “Heh, pleasure doing business with you three.” The monster smirked. “You three seem to be acting genuinely, so tell you what: come back to me if you need any more maps.” The trio waved at the monster and walked away.

The trio retraced their steps and walked back to where they last saw King. It took both Donald and Sora to stop Goofy from instinctively looking for ingredients in the nearby trash can. From there, they followed King’s instructions and entered the seventh alleyway. It was a straight path to a cloth that covered an entrance. The trio walked past the cloth and was met with a giant castle. They stared at the castle in fascination as they made their way towards the front gate. Before they reached the gate, it opened up and Luz came running out with a rolled up paper in her hand. King followed behind her, slowly carrying the bag of potions.

“Guys, guys, guys! You’re never gonna believe what just happened!!” Luz shouted as she unrolled the paper and thrusted it in front of them. “I really AM the Chosen One! Look, I’m the only one who can claim the ancient Celestial Staff and free this world from an ancient evil!”

“That’s great news Luz!” Goofy encouraged her.

“You did have a reason from coming here!” Donald cheered.

“And it would’ve happened if you didn’t deliver Eda’s potions.” Sora pointed out.

“How can all of you believe what that ‘wizard’ said?!” King asked, baffled. “I get you three weren’t there, but seriously Luz? You’re just gonna blindly trust what Adegast claimed?!”

“Of course I trust what Adegast said! Why wouldn’t I trust what he said?” Luz argued. “Besides, you seemed to trust him more once he started giving you food.”

“That’s besides the point!” King shouted as he stamped his feet. “Forget it, let’s just get out of here already. I’ve had enough adventure for one day…” King started to walk away and dropped the bag of potions in front of Sora. Sora picked up the bag and distributed the maps among everyone, giving everyone a map except King. Luz walked ahead of the group, but constantly had to stop and ask King where to go next, despite having a map. Once they exited Bonesborough and reached the open plains, Luz ran as fast as she could back to The Owl House. Sora, Donald, and Goofy were able to keep up, but King was getting tired and ended up left behind. Goofy picked up King and started running with him on his shoulder. With everyone running, they made it back to The Owl House in nearly half the time. Before they entered, Hooty stopped them and started talking.

“Did you have a nice trip?” Hooty asked, excited to hear about the details.

“It was incredible!” Luz shouted. “I’ll tell you about it later Hooty, but right I have to get back into my room!”

“Yeah, just hurry up and let us in Hooty, I want to take my nap now…” King yawned.

“Aw… okay…” Hooty said sadly as he opened the door. Luz picked up the toy sword that Eda threw on the ground, took some food and bottles from the kitchen, and ran up to her room. The trio and King followed her into her room, and she was already organizing everything she brought up.

“So guys, what kind of Chosen One should I be?” Luz asked eagerly.

“Huh? What?” King yawned as he curled up on Luz’s bed.

“What do you mean by ‘kind’? There’s more than one way of being a hero?” Goofy asked.

“You know, should I be full of optimism and goodness, like the Good Witch Azura?” Luz asked as she held up her book in a cheerful tone.

“Hey Sora, that kind of sounds like you!” Donald pointed out and laughed. King laughed at Sora as well, so he rolled his eyes.

“Or, should I be like a bad girl Chosen One with black nail polish and a mysterious withdrawn attitude?” Luz asked as she changed into a very serious attitude. “I act like I don’t care, but I secretly do.” She mocked as she opened and closer her book to match her words.

“Yeah, that does sound a bit like Riku.” Sora started to smile as well.

“Oh, you guys talking about bad girls?” Eda entered the room, eavesdropping in on the conversation. She swayed a severed arm sassily. Her attitude quickly changed when she saw everything that Luz laid out. “Wait, what’s going on?” Eda asked suspiciously.

“Eda, tell Luz how dumb wizards are.” King insisted as he stood up.

“Ugh! Wizards are the worst! Never trust a man in casual drapery.” Eda ranted as she swung the severed arm around, almost hitting King multiple times. “Why do you ask? You already know how much I hate them.” She said as she interlocked her fingers with the fingers of the severed arm.

“Your wizard client told Luz… she was a… a Chosen One!” King burst out laughing as he rolled around and pounded his fist on the ground.

“Wait, wait, wait, Luz?!” Eda burst out laughing as well, falling onto the ground. Luz began to blush and covered her face with her book. The trio saw how embarrassed Luz was, so they walked over and put their arm on her shoulder.

“It’s okay Luz, don’t listen to them…” Sora tried to comfort her.

“He even gave her a map!” King said after he finally started to calm down.

“Alright, let me see this map he gave you.” Eda said as she got up. Luz put her book down and handed the map over to Eda. She looked at the map closely, then gave a smirk. “You didn’t think this was real, did you?” Everyone but King stared at her in confusion.

“How can you tell?” Donald asked for everyone.

“Simple: there isn’t a lake with a Celestial Staff on The Boiling Isles. If there was, I would’ve stolen it ages ago.” Eda dismissed. Luz looked down at the floor with disappointment, her hopes of being special vanished.

“Are ya going to be okay, Luz?” Goofy asked, worried about her emotional state.

“Don’t worry, kid. A couple more months here and you won’t look like such a mark.” Eda reassured. She handed the map over to Luz and ruffled her hair, but she didn’t react at all.

“Can I have some time alone…?” Luz asked quietly as she pushed everyone’s hands off of her. Eda simply shrugged and walked out of her room, with King following behind her. The trio started to walk towards the door, but stopped and looked back at Luz. “Please just go away right now. I need some time alone to think…” Luz whispered, heartbroken. Her response only made the trio worry more, but they listened to her request and left the room. They quietly closed the door behind them and went downstairs, joining Eda and King in the main room.

“Finally! All that mean-spirited laughter made me sleepy…” King said as he curled up on the couch and began to fall asleep again. Eda was pacing back on forth near the door, clearly worried about something. She finally stopped and walked over to King.

“Wake up, King.” Eda demanded. “You said that wizard was one of my clients?”

“Yes. Now go away.” King said, annoyed.

“I don’t know him that well, and I don’t trust this itch he’s scratching in the human.” Eda stated as she sat on the couch as well.

“Less talky, more nappy!” King shouted, not caring at all.

“How could you two be so harsh to Luz?!” Sora finally shouted.

“Listen, kid! Just because you were told that you were a Chosen One and went on quests in your worlds doesn’t mean that’s how it works on The Boiling Isles!” Eda snapped as she stood back up and got in Sora’s face.

“Even if that’s true, you could’ve told her in a much nicer way!” Sora argued.

“You’ve only been here for a day, and I’ve lived in this nightmare of a world I call home for my entire life! I know what I’m talking about. The Boiling Isles is a cruel and unforgiving world that destroys naive fools like Luz. Telling Luz her dreams won’t come true is for her own good.” Eda explained.

“And that’s exactly why Luz needs comfort!” Sora shouted, speaking from experience.

“Sora’s right. When we first met him in Traverse Town, he was alone, afraid, and was always getting his butt kicked by Heartless. For him, his world had completely changed and had no one to go to for help.” Goofy explained.

“Sure, he was a mess at times and it took a long time for him to get used to his new life, but we were there to help him whenever he needed it. Because of that, we’ve become extremely close friends and always had each other’s backs.” Donald reminisced.

“Donald and Goofy helped give me comfort when I was in a new world and needed it most, and right now, that’s what Luz needs: comfort. Sure, it won’t be easy for her to get used to The Boiling Isles being different from her expectations, but she needs the comfort and positivity to get through these tough times.” Sora stated, staring directly into Eda’s eyes.

Eda couldn’t take the guilt and broke eye contact, feeling regret. “Okay, you’re right…” Eda admitted. She looked at the staircase and gave a heavy sigh as she left.

“Wow, I’m impressed. No one’s ever convinced Eda like that before!” King said in amazement. “Now everyone stop talking so I can have my nap.”

Sora looked at King with disappointment. Why couldn’t he be convinced like Eda was? Donald and Goofy both put their hands on Sora’s shoulders, proud of him for standing up to Eda.

“That was very well spoken, Sora!” Goofy complimented.

“You did the right thing by talking back to Eda.” Donald agreed.

“Thank you, Donald and Goofy. I don’t think I would’ve gotten this far if you two hadn’t shown up in Traverse Town. Thank you for staying with me through all the difficult times. I really mean it.” Sora confessed. The trio smiled at each other, until the entire house suddenly shook.

“What was that?!” The trio shouted as they summoned their weapons.

“Oh, that was just Eda talking to Hooty. You get used to it.” King said, barely acknowledging what just happened. The trio unsummoned their weapons, perplexed about the conversation that led to the whole house shaking. Then, Eda came running down the stairs, looking both worried and irritated.

“Luz’s gone. She left and followed the map into the Bonesborough forest.” Eda said. She reached her arm out and called for her staff, catching it this time.

“WHAT?!” The trio shouted, worried for Luz’s safety. “We have to go find her!”

“We will, but right now we have to find that wizard and make him talk. Come on, we’re going back into Bonesborough.” Eda explained. “King, you remember where you and Luz met him?”

“Yeah, but so do they, take them instead…!” King said, knowing he was going to be dragged along. Literally. Eda dragged him off the couch by the tail until he willingly joined everyone else.

Together, they left The Owl House, got onto Eda’s staff in the same order, and flew into Bonesborough. Once King recognized where he brought food, the group landed and made their way towards the alleyway.

“Down this alleyway!” King said as he began to sniff the ground. “This is where we met the scones. I-I mean the wizard.” Eda rolled her eyes at King’s remark as they continued down the alleyway. When they moved past the cloth covering the entrance, they stopped, knowing something was wrong. The castle was destroyed and falling apart. “Whoa, it wasn’t like this before!” King exclaimed. The trio nodded their heads in agreement.

“I don’t like this…” Eda said angrily. The group walked to the front gate and opened it, revealing the interior to be just as damaged as the exterior. There were multiple pieces of paper on the floor, and upon closer examination, they were all maps in different places, but they all led to the Celestial Staff.

“Did the wizard make all these fake maps?” Sora asked, worried about Luz and her map.

“I really don’t like this…” Eda said as she crumpled the fake maps in her hand. “C’mon, Luz’s map has to be a fake as well, and we can’t wait and find out what exactly’s at the ‘Celestial Staff’.” She declared.

Everyone was in agreement and turned to walk out the front gate, but it suddenly slammed closed. Then, they heard footsteps coming from the top of the stairs. The trio summoned their weapons, Eda tightened her grip on her staff, and King hid behind Eda’s leg. Multiple Heartless came running down the stairs and blocked the entrance. Some Heartless were massive spheres covered in spikes with tiny arms and legs, with the heart symbol in the center of the sphere. Some Heartless were suits of armor with a sword for an arm, with the heart symbol on the chestplate. Some Heartless were floating creatures with no legs and a book bigger than their body, with the heart symbol on the cover of the book. 

“Great, more Heartless…!” The trio shouted.

“Why are they even here?!” King screamed as he cowered behind Eda’s leg.

“We ain’t got time to deal with them! Let’s get outta here!” Eda ordered as she slammed her staff on the ground, lightning crackling around her. The Heartless charged forward, and the group split up: Eda went after the Bookmasters, Donald and Goofy went after the Morning Stars, and Sora went after the Armored Knights.

Sora became quickly surrounded by the Armored Knights, but easily stood his ground and parried their swords. When they all tried to attack Sora at once, the air around him began to swirl around him and he rose into the air. He then soared through the Armored Knights multiple times, slicing through them with ease. Once they were all defeated, the air around Sora dispersed and he landed. The Morning Stars began spinning towards Donald and Goofy. Goofy used his shield to block them, while Donald cast Blizzard on the ground, causing the Morning Stars to slip and miss. Once they all stopped spinning, most of them switched their arms into iron maces and began to walk towards Donald and Goofy, while one of them leaped into the air and tried to crash on top of them. Goofy held his shield over his head and bumped the Morning Star back into the air and Donald cast Gravity on that same Morning Star, making him shake in the air for a few seconds. Goofy jumped into the air and slammed his shield against the Morning Star in the air, and with the combination of Gravity, caused it to crash into the other Morning Stars at breakneck speed, swiftly defeating them. The Bookmasters cast a combination of spells at Eda and King; some cast lightning to strike from above, some cast fireballs, and some cast ice crystals. Eda drew a circle above her head and created a barrier to block the lightning, then used her staff to deflect the fireballs and break the ice crystals. When the lightning stopped, Eda stabbed her barrier and swung it in front of her, creating a giant circle that split off into smaller circles. From all the small circles, large bolts of electricity struck out and struck every Bookmaster, piercing through their books and defeating them.

With the Heartless defeated, Eda and King began to walk back to the gate, but the trio stopped them.

“Hold on, didn’t you say Luz was heading to some kind of forest?” Sora asked as the trio began looking through the fake maps on the floor.

“Yeah, she was headed towards the forest outside of Bonesborough.” Eda confirmed. “So what’re you waiting for, let’s get over there!”

“Did Luz’s map look like this?” Donald asked as he held up a fake map that led into a forest.

“That’s the same map, but why do you care?” Eda asked, confused why they didn’t leave yet.

“Well, we can use this map to follow the path that Luz took!” Goofy pointed out.

“Yeah, let’s do that! That way I won’t have to track at all!” King agreed.

“Wow, I wasn’t expecting you three to actually have a plan. I guess you’re not so dumb after all!” Eda winked. “Alright, let’s use that map and go after Luz.” Sora handed over the fake map to Eda so she could navigate it while flying. The group left the castle and got back on Eda’s staff, taking off and following the map to follow Luz.

“Is there anything else on the map that can help us, like a location or something?” Sora asked.

“Looks like the only thing besides the trail is a town of some sort.” Eda stated. “Luz’ll definitely pass through that. Let’s stop off there, maybe someone there knows where she went or more about this wizard.” Everyone nodded in agreement, so they made their way towards a little town in the middle of the forest.

When they came across the village, it was nothing but ruins, just like the castle they encountered. The group stared at the ruins with horror as they got off of Eda’s staff.

“Are ya sure Luz came through here?” Goofy asked, worried.

“Yep, there’s no mistaking her smell.” King said as he sniffed the ground. “Like lemons and young, naive confidence.”

“That wizard must have disguised this village with magic like he did with the castle!” Donald said angrily.

“Come on, let’s look around for some sort of clue for this wizard’s motivation.” Eda ordered as she began to walk around the village.

“We should be quick, more Heartless might be around here…” Sora nervously pointed out.

Everyone split up to look for anything that would be evidence towards the wizard, but they couldn’t find anything in any of the buildings. When they regrouped back at the entrance, they noticed a strange creature laying inside the fountain.

“Was that… always there?” King asked, freaked out.

“No, it wasn’t.” Eda said as she approached the limp cat creature. “Hey! Wake up, you! What have you done with Luz? What’s your endgame?!” She shouted as she shook the cat creature violently.

“To find your pupil and still your wrath, look ahead and follow the path.” The cat creature laughed as it disintegrated into darkness. Suddenly, many strange creatures similar to the cat popped up all around town. “Look ahead and follow the path.” They all chanted as they disintegrated into darkness as well. All of the darkness gathered in front of the group, and together they formed a giant monster. The monster had multiple heads stacked on top of each other, alternating between red and black. The monster had black arms that looked like it was made out of folded paper, both wielding purple batons. The monster had four legs, with two of them connected to each other that bent in opposite directions. The Heartless symbol was on the center of its chest, which loomed over the group.

“Why did they all melt and form that thing?!” King shouted, terrified.

“You can’t be serious, a Trickmaster?!” The trio shouted as they summoned their weapons.

“Trickmaster, huh? How fitting…” Eda rolled her eyes as she slammed her staff on the ground again.

The Trickmaster began walking towards the ground, swinging its batons wildly in the air and slamming them on the ground. Goofy ran up to block its left baton while Sora and Eda ran up to block its right baton, causing it to lose its grip on its batons and launching them into the air. The Trickmaster jumped into the air and grabbed its batons again and began flipping through the air as it fell back to the ground. Everyone jumped back as the Trickmaster slammed its batons into the ground, sending rocks flying at the group. Sora sliced through some of the rocks, Donald cast Blizzard and shattered some rocks, and Goofy used his shield to block some of the rocks. Eda twirled her staff and front of her to create a circle, and once formed, a rock had a yellow glow around it and stopped moving. Eda twirled the staff around her body and pointed it at the Trickmaster, sending the rock towards it and slamming it into the Trickmaster. The impact of the rock stunned the Trickmaster and fell onto the ground, leaving it completely vulnerable. Everyone ran up and attacked its heads as much as they could, but the Trickmaster quickly stood back up. It brought its batons up to heads and breathed fire, lighting the batons on fire as well. It began swinging its batons again, but this time it was launching fireballs with each twirl. Sora cast Reflect around everyone to protect them from the fireballs, but the Trickmaster kept walking closer. It stopped in front of the Reflect and kneeled down and brought its batons up to its faces, preparing to breathe fire again. As Sora dropped Reflect, Eda summoned water in her hand and launched it at the Trickmaster’s face, putting out the batons. Donald cast Blizzard, and with the combination of Eda’s water, froze the Trickmaster’s batons to its faces and encased its heads in a block of ice. Goofy ran forward and bashed the Trickmaster’s heads, shattering the ice, breaking the batons, and knocking it on the ground. It layed on the ground, not moving at all, until a large crystal heart rose from its body. The crystal heart rose into the sky, and the Trickmaster’s body faded away.

With the Trickmaster defeated, everyone quickly grouped up.

“This is definitely a trap. The wizard wants us to go after Luz.” Donald pointed out.

“Forget it! These things are way too dangerous, I’m not going after her!” King shouted.

“Luz needs our help and this wizard has power over the Heartless! We can’t just let them be!” Sora argued.

“What should we do now?” Goofy asked.

Eda was quiet as she pondered what to do next. “We’re going after the wizard and saving Luz.” Eda finally answered as she got on her staff. The trio looked at her with pride, but King just sulked. They got back on the staff and flew deeper into the forest to find Luz and the wizard.

“I know this guy. He’s no wizard.” Eda stated. The trio looked at her in confusion. “He’s a puppeteer, a demon who specializes in scamming and manipulating people. He’s trying to use Luz to get to me.”

“I guess it’s because he’s a demon that he can easily control Heartless…” Sora guessed.

“You realize we’re flying directly into his trap, right?!” King angrily shouted.

“Hey, if you can think of a better plan, I’d love to hear it!” Eda snapped back. They kept following the map all the way to the Celestial Staff.

Once they made it to the end of the trail, they saw Luz encased in multiple chains surrounded by more strange creatures, each connected by a tentacle. In front of Luz was a massive octopus demon that was controlling all the other creatures.

“Luz! Hang in there!” The trio shouted as they saw her in danger.

The group landed behind the octopus demon on a path that led up to the center platform Luz was surrounded on.

“Adegast!” Eda confronted the octopus demon.

“Eda, I have you now!” Adegast shouted. Suddenly, more creatures broke through the ground and entangled everyone, causing Eda to drop her staff and the trio couldn’t summon their weapons in time. They were lifted up into the air and couldn’t break free.

“That’s right. You have me. Now release Luz!” Eda demanded.

“I didn’t have to be a part of this!” King complained. Everyone looked at him disappointedly.

“You’re not going to get away with this!” Sora shouted.

“Don’t worry, she can leave if she wants to. But I sense she wants a real fantasy!” Adegast said ominously. One of the puppets spewed a purple smoke around Luz, causing the group to no longer see Luz, but they could still hear voices from the smoke.

“Stay with us, Luz. Stay with Adegast. We need you here. You could be our Chosen One.” One voice said.

“Don’t listen to them Luz! Don’t go back to Adegast!” Goofy warned.

“Yeah, you can eat our tiny foods forever.” Another voice said.

“It’s just another trap, Luz!” Donald shouted.

“Luz, why would you want to live in a world where people laugh at you?” A third voice said.

“Please Luz, we don’t look down on you just because you’re different!” Sora tried to convince her.

“It is beautiful here…” Luz admitted.

“No it’s not! How could you ever think that?!” King said, baffled.

“And you guys think I’m special…” Luz said happily.

“Luz! No!!” Eda shouted, trying to reach her.

“But it’s not real!” Luz shouted as she ran out of the smoke, causing it to disperse. She ran up and grabbed the toy sword she brought with her. “These five truly care about me after all the trouble I caused them, and your lies can never cover that up! I am a Witch’s Apprentice, and I’m gonna earn my magic staff the hard way! I believed you, Magic Man, now feel my wrath!” She charged forward and stabbed the wizard puppet with its foam tip, causing it to disperse. Adegath shrieked in pain somehow as one of his puppets disappeared, loosening his grip on the group and allowing them to escape. Everyone grouped up and prepared to take down the puppets. Eda picked up her staff, Donald and Goofy summoned their weapons, and Sora concentrated and changed into Second Form.

Everyone became surrounded by many puppets, so they split up to take care of them. Luz used her toy sword to fight back against the puppets, taking them down one by one with little trouble. Eda drew a circle with her finger and a column of fire bursted out, singeing multiple tentacles and turning the puppets into ashes. Donald cast Blizzard and Aero together, launching ice shards into multiple puppets, destroying them. Goofy bashed his shield against any puppets that tried to attack anyone from behind, protecting everyone and allowing others to defeat those puppets. However, Sora was completely surrounded by puppets, but was only observing the puppets. He was carefully observing the movements of every puppet, until finally he jumped into the air and floated. He pointed his Keyblade in front of him as a ball of light began to glow at the tip of the Keyblade. The ball of light began to grow until it exploded, causing projectiles of light to shoot out of the ball, attacking every puppet Sora focused on and destroying them.

At this point, Adegast was almost completely out of puppets to control. Desperate, he grabbed King with his final minion and retreated into the center platform. “Back off! Or the dog gets it.” He warned as he tightened his grip around King, slowly crushing him.

“I’m not a dog!” King faintly shouted in pain. Everyone dropped their weapons as soon as they saw King in pain.

“King, I’m so sorry. I should have listened to you and Eda and never trusted that wizard. You two were right…” Luz admitted sadly. “He isn’t mystical or magical… He’s just a big, slimy jerk!” She kicked her sword towards Adegast, and it ended up lodged in the center of his forehead. He screamed in pain as his puppet that was holding King disappeared, causing him to fall. Luz caught King and backed up. Adegast began to shrink in size until he was a tiny creature. Everyone walked up to the greatly weakened Adegast, terrified of the group. Eda picked him up.

“Well, that’s the last time I take an outside referral.” Eda said. She opened her mouth and ate Adegast as the trio stared at her horrifically. “Oh, sorry, did any of you want some of that?” She asked, trying to be considerate. The trio shook their heads in disgust, but Luz hardly reacted.

“No, I’m just confused…” Luz admitted.

“You’re thinking about calling it quits, aren't ya?” Eda guessed.

“This place is nothing like I imagined…” Luz sulked.

Eda looked around the dead forest, then suddenly got on her staff. “Maybe not here, but come with me. I’ve got something to show all of you that’ll change your mind.” She extended her hand to Luz, and after a bit of hesitation she grabbed her hand. King jumped onto the staff, Luz sat nervously, and the trio hooked back on. Eda reached into her hair and pulled out a bandana. “Before we go, put this on. Wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise.” She said mysteriously. Luz put on the blindfold and held onto Eda closely as they began to fly into the sky. The trio closed their eyes to see what the surprise would be as well.

The group flew very high in the sky until Eda finally spoke. “Okay, you can look now.” She finally said. Luz let go of Eda and took off her blindfolds while the trio finally opened their eyes. When they looked around, they saw the sun setting over the giant skeleton that made up The Boiling Isles. Luz and the trio gasped and stared in amazement at the sight of such an amazing spectacle.

“Here it is: the Bones of the Isles.” Eda gestured towards the skeleton. “Up close, the Isles can be slimy.”

“And very stinky.” King joined in.

“And gross.” Eda shivered. She looked at the sky and noticed something. She lightly bumped Luz with her shoulder to get her attention and gestured at the sky, directing everyone’s attention at the top of the skull. “But if you look at it from a different perspective…” Just then, a shooting star passed through the sky.

“It’s beautiful…!” Luz gasped in amazement. But the excitement quickly faded from her face. “Eda, how did you know that wizard was lying?” She asked. Eda knew this question was coming, and dread washed over her face.

“Look kid, everyone wants to believe they’re ‘chosen’. But if we all waited around for a prophecy to make us special, we’d die waiting. That’s why you need to choose yourself.” Eda said wholeheartedly as she smiled at Luz.

“Miss Eda’s right. We shouldn't just wait around for someone to give us orders just to act.” Goofy stated.

“Yeah, we need to act for ourselves and make our own decisions.” Donald agreed.

“Everyone has a fate, but we never know where it’ll lead us. If we just sit around and wait for it to reveal itself, then nothing will happen. It’s only after we made our own decisions does our fate begin to reveal itself. But until that day comes, we have to choose on our own.” Sora stated.

“I understand that now.” Luz smiled. “But… does this mean you’ll give me a magic staff of my own?” she asked nervously.

“Not yet. But… someday.” Eda admitted, giving a warm smile. She looked down at Sora and saw he was giving her a smile as well. At the sight of Sora’s smile, Eda began to feel both guilt and compassion, and decided to confess. She took a deep sigh and looked at Luz. “Luz, I owe you an apology for how harshly I treated you. You were excited about being in a new world and wanted to live out your fantasies. I should’ve been kinder to you and tried to not destroy your dreams and expectations…”

“Thanks Eda, but I should be the one apologizing. I was too stubborn to listen to your warnings and we all ended up in danger. I should’ve listened to you and King and I should’ve stayed back at the house…” Luz admitted.

“You remind me a lot of myself when I was younger!” Eda laughed. “Don’t sweat it, Luz! I got into a ton of trouble when I was a kid, and I still do. I guess I’m an expert in getting in trouble and getting back out. If you get into trouble here, I’ll help bail you out.”

“Thank you Eda, that means a lot to me.” Luz said, smiling. “I’ll try my best to stay out of trouble, since I still don’t know how your world works. It’ll take some more time to get used to it.”

“And I’ll try to be more considerate about your world and how you view our world. Just remember, you’re still going to be working for me, so don’t go complaining about jobs, got it?” Eda asked. Luz nodded her head. “Great. It’s a deal then.” Eda ruffled Luz’s hair, and they both exchanged smiles. Luz rested her head on Eda’s shoulder, and together the group stared off into the distance, watching the sun set behind the skull of The Boiling Isles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: I hope you all enjoyed another chapter! College has been going kind of rough, but I am still managing and finding time to write these stories, which I really enjoy doing. I am a little worried about falling behind on my schedule, but I am doing my best to follow it. This chapter was for the most part a filler chapter, and the pace will begin to pick up again in the next chapter as we introduce more main characters. It has been difficult to write the fight scenes because it’s not easy to properly convey all their actions, but I hope it creates a good mental image of the battles. I’m also working on building more of a mother-daughter relationship between Luz and Eda that we see in the finale, so I’m having a fun time trying to add it in. Basic information about Kingdom Hearts will be explained in small pieces throughout the chapters to help inform those who are unfamiliar with its lore or game-play. Thank you for your continued support and I will see you in the next chapter!
> 
> Disclaimer: I actually like the Kingdom Hearts outfits, but they’re still pretty ridiculous compared to everyone else.


	4. Friends Of Abominations

Sora, Donald, and Goofy woke up in the Gummiship after a frantic day of chasing after Luz. They slept in the Gummiship because they didn’t want to irritate Eda by sleeping inside The Owl House without permission again. They took a few minutes to prepare themselves and left the Gummiship to join up with Luz, King, and Eda. Once they reached The Owl House, they greeted Hooty and chatted with him about yesterday, albeit a little reluctantly, and entered the house. Once inside, they made their way to the kitchen, where they saw Luz, King, and Eda sitting around the table. Eda and King were sitting in chairs and picking at their food, with Luz being more hesitant to eat than King, and Eda was sitting on the table drinking a cup of apple blood in her pajamas. The trio gathered around the table.

“Good morning everyone!” Sora greeted cheerfully.

“Hey, there you three are!” Luz said happily.

“We decided to sleep in the Gummiship last night.” Goofy explained.

“Yeah, you left the best nap spots open.” King pointed out.

“Well, we were a little afraid to sleep inside the house without Eda’s permission again…” Donald laughed nervously.

“Thanks for actually listening to me this time. Did it again and I would’ve REALLY had to kick you out.” Eda laughed. They couldn’t tell if she was serious or not, but they weren’t ready to take that risk either.

“Do we have any plans for today?” Donald asked curiously.

“I’m gonna take a great nap.” King bragged as he stretched, despite the fact that he woke up not very long ago.

“Not so fast, King. If my timing is right, and it’s never been wrong before, we’ve got the perfect chance to make some shells down by the beach. And all of you are coming with me to help.” Eda explained.

“Gawrsh, I hope we weren’t keeping you waiting…” Goofy said, worried.

“Don’t worry, we woke up a little while ago as well.” Luz reassured them. “This is the first time I heard of your task for us, Eda.”

“So when are we going to head out then?!” Sora asked, excited.

“Slow down there, kid. There’s no rush to get this done, so we’ll leave in a little while.” Eda said calmly. “In the meantime, how about you three answer more questions that you three failed to inform us about in the first place?” She asked as she gave them an irritated face.

“It’s about time you three say something that actually makes sense…” King said sarcastically.

“Oh yeah, I’ve got some questions to ask as well!” Luz said energetically.

“I was afraid you would say that…” Donald sighed, struggling to keep the World Order.

“Well, it is the least we can do for ya…” Goofy acknowledged.

“Alright then, what do you want to know about first?” Sora asked, slightly nervous.

“I wanna ask the first question! What were those weird monsters with weapons that attacked us back at the Conformatorium?!” King shouted, still afraid of them.

“Those monsters are called Nobodies. You see, when a person gets consumed by darkness, their heart gets separated from their body and soul, forming a Heartless. However, the body and soul that gets left behind forms a Nobody, a monster rejected from both the light and darkness, forced to walk the realm in between, doomed to a state of non-existence. They technically shouldn’t even exist. Nobodies have every memory they had before they were swallowed by darkness, but without a heart, they can’t feel or show any emotion at all. They’re much more coordinated than the Heartless, and their goal is to gain a heart in order to feel emotions again and become whole, even if they take someone else’s heart.” Sora explained.

“That sounds really depressing, not being able to feel any emotions…” Luz said sadly.

“Forced to exist while not existing at the same time, sure sounds like a demon to me.” King said.

“Wait, if Nobodies don’t have hearts, then why aren’t they called Heartless? And if Heartless don’t have proper bodies, then why aren’t they called Nobodies?!” Eda asked, perplexed.

“I don’t know, I didn’t name them!” Sora tried to defend himself. “Honestly, I don’t really understand it either.”

“I’ve got some strong words to share with whoever failed to name these monsters…” Eda said frustratedly as she rubbed her head. “Whatever, that can’t be helped now… Moving on. When we defeated that ‘Trickmaster’ thing, something strange came out of it and rose into the sky. What was that thing?” She asked, still physically reeling from her last answer.

“That was the heart. My Keyblade has the power to release the heart from the darkness in Heartless and allows the heart to return to its original body. However, the Keyblade also has the power to release the body and soul from the nothingness in Nobodies, and when both are free, they recreate the original person. Anyway, that crystal you saw was a heart returning to become whole again. It’s still unknown what exactly hearts are, but everyone has a heart, and it's different from the heart organ in our body.” Sora stated.

“Aww… but why would you want to free them from darkness? As the King of Demons, I rely on darkness, and it makes me very powerful!” King declared. Everyone doubted him, though.

“Yeah, I don’t think you know how this ‘darkness’ stuff actually works.” Donald mutters, though nobody can tell.

“Wow, I wonder what my heart looks like…” Luz daydreamed. “…Wait, what’s a Trickmaster?!” She suddenly snapped out of her daydream.

“So that’s what you kept meaning when you said hearts are connected…” Eda said, slightly embarrassed about her previous assumption, which was about physical hearts.

“Oh, oh, me next!” Luz raised her hand excitedly. “What did you mean when you said you never asked to go on your journey?”

“The Keyblade was never supposed to be mine; it was supposed to be my… friend, Riku’s. It became mine when Riku opened his heart to the darkness and I tried to reach out to him and bring him back. When I did, I was able to reach out to the little light that remained in Riku’s heart, and the Kingdom Key appeared in my hands. Riku tried to steal it back, but my heart was stronger than his because of the connections with my friends, and the Kingdom Key stayed mine.” Sora explained as he summoned his Keyblade.

“So the Keyblade doesn’t want the wielder to use darkness? That’s not fair at all!” King protested.

“I guess you really are a good thief!” Eda laughed. “I’ve got to come up with a plan for you to put that skill into good use!”

“Wow, so the weapon chooses its wielder! That’s so fantasy-like…” Luz gushed over. “So how do you get your own Keyblade? Can I get one?!”

“I’m still very unclear on how someone actually gets a Keyblade. I’m pretty sure someone can train to get their own Keyblade, but I have no idea what that’s like since I’m self-taught. I think I also heard that someone can pass down their Keyblade…” Sora said vaguely.

“Can I get my own Keyblade and my own magic staff?! I could dual wield them! I’d be such a powerful witch!!” Luz shouted exhilaratingly as she swung her silverware as if they were weapons.

“Sorry, I’m not sure how to give you a Keyblade of your own… But it’s probably for the best that you focus on one kind of training at a time. You should just stick with Eda’s training to become a powerful witch, she’s a better teacher than I ever could be.” Sora confessed.

“Yeah, that might be for the best.” Luz admitted.

“Remember Sora, you’re not actually a Keyblade Master.” Donald rubbed it in.

“What does it take to become a master? You swing that thing around like it's nothing and slayed those monsters easily, what else is there?” Eda asked, confused.

“Sora had to take the Mark Of Mastery to prove his resistance to darkness, but it was a trap. Sora almost became one of the 13 Darknesses…” Goofy recalled grimly.

“There you go with the 13 Darknesses again. What are those?” King asked impatiently.

“Oh boy… Just… bear with me with what I’m about to say. It’s a very long story and we don’t know a lot of details.” Sora sighed as he carefully thought about what to say. Luz, King, and Eda feared what they had just gotten themselves into. Sora took a deep breath and started talking very quickly.

“Okay, so, an incredibly long time ago, every world was connected and they were one. At the center of all the worlds was the heart of all worlds: Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts had its own Keyblade to control it called the χ-Blade, ‘key’ like the old-timey letter ‘χ,’ trust me, it’s different. Whoever wielded the χ-Blade meant they could control all worlds, and people wanted to have that power for themselves. This created the Keyblade War, and countless Keyblade wielders ended up dying. When it was all over, the χ-Blade was destroyed into 7 pieces of light and 13 pieces of darkness. With the χ-Blade destroyed, all worlds split apart and the emptiness between them became space. Now, very recently, a man named Xehanort gathered 13 Seekers of Darkness and forced them to clash against the 7 Guardians of Light, which I’m a part of, in order to reforge the χ-Blade. It ended up working, and he nearly destroyed Kingdom Hearts, which would’ve destroyed every world in existence, but we barely managed to put a stop to him. Then we destroyed the χ-Blade so no one would be tempted to use its power again.” Sora gave a deep sigh as he finally finished. Eda, King, and Luz stared at Sora with a blank expression, still processing what he just said.

“So… Earth and The Boiling Isles were once existing together…” Luz took away from the explanation.

“How did darkness lose?! They had advantage in numbers!” King protested.

“Wha— Ho— you know what, forget it… You don’t know everything, so I guess I just have to accept your insane attempt at an explanation.” Eda rubbed her head. “I doubt you’re lying though, that’s WAY too convoluted of a story to make up on the spot.” She admitted. “Well, nothing’s gonna top that massive reveal, so I’m done asking questions so I can process this story… Look, I’m just gonna say this bluntly: how much have you three not told us?”

“Gawrsh, still quite a lot of information.” Goofy admitted.

“Okay then… How much do you three plan to tell us?” Eda asked, annoyed.

“As little as possible, but with the questions you're asking and what we keep running into here, I think we’ll be telling a lot more than we were hoping…” Donald said begrudgingly, still trying to keep the World Order.

“Well, we’ll get you three to make more sense eventually. For now, it’s time we start getting to work.” She stated as she put down her mug. She got off the table and made her way out of the kitchen, with everyone else following behind her. As Eda rounded the corner, she snapped her finger and there was a burst of light. When everyone else rounded the corner, Eda had already changed into her normal clothes.

“Whoa! How’d you change so quickly?!” Luz asked, shocked. “Wait… Is it like when you change your clothes for power?” She asked Sora.

“Well, it’s a little more than just changing my clothes. It’s more like I’m accessing some of my strength from my past.” Sora tried to explain.

“Why is your power in your clothes?!” King asked, baffled.

“Our clothes are specially made to help ward off the darkness.” Donald explained.

“Although Sora can draw out that power in his clothes to help make him stronger.” Goofy pointed out.

“Look, all I did was change my clothes, there’s nothing special to it.” Eda dismissed. She reached her hand out and her staff came flying towards her, this time with less collateral damage and actually caught it this time. “Now come on, let’s get to work.” Everyone exited The Owl House and got onto Eda’s staff. They waved goodbye to Hooty as they took off to wherever Eda’s job was.

The group flew across the shoreline for a while, searching for whatever Eda’s job was. The shoreline was almost completely empty, with the exception of some washed-up debris. Eventually, they saw something massive lying on the shore, and they began to descend.

“There it is! Once again, I was right!” Eda bragged as they landed in the sand. She ran ahead of everyone else to get closer to the mysterious washed-up as everyone else slowly approached it. As they got closer, a disgusting smell washed over them, causing everyone to cover their noses except for Eda and King. They noticed that what had washed-up was actually a giant creature that was surrounded by trash. They met up with Eda, who was already rubbing her hands together in anticipation.

“Well Luz, did you ever in your life think you’d see something as breathtaking as this?” Eda asked eagerly. “I’m sure you three have seen some amazing things, but I’m sure this is better than anything else!”

“I think we’ve seen better things than… this.” Sora said sheepishly. Donald and Goofy frantically nodded in agreement with Sora.

“Eh, you three have no taste.” Eda dismissed them. “C’mon Luz, what do you think?” She asked as she placed her hand on Eda’s shoulder.

“I… don’t like this…” Luz said quietly.

“Seriously? It doesn’t get much more inspiring than the trash slug!” Eda insisted as she got closer. “It makes a home, a life from what others have thrown by the wayside. Until, blam! It gets blasted by a wave one day and croaks from all the salt. And then, we get to sell the stuff it ate!” She explained as she pulled a pickaxe out of her hair and offered it to everyone.

“Please don’t make me…” Luz said as she gently pushed the pickaxe away from her.

“Yeah, I think we’ll stick with the Heartless…” Sora agreed.

“Aw, come on, you four. It’s not every day you get to go to the dump and pick apart a garbage carcass.” King said sarcastically. He walked over to Eda and reached into her hair, pulling out a blanket with a yellow duck on it. He laid it out on the sand and sat on it, trying to take another nap.

“Ah, nuts to all of you.” Eda said disappointedly, but it quickly faded away. She took her pickaxe and swung ferociously at the trash slug’s teeth, shattering them and causing trash to spill out of its mouth. Everyone looked away when she swung her pickaxe, though. Very disgusted, Luz tried to change the topic.

“So, Eda…” Luz began as Eda continued to smash the trash slug’s teeth. “What if we tried some different lessons for my apprenticeship that aren’t so gross? Like… read ancient scrolls or mix potions together or—”

“That just sounds like a bunch of lame magic school stuff.” Eda sighed angrily as she continued to rummage through the trash.

“Wait, is there a magic school here? Like, winding towers, cute uniforms, dark plots that threaten your life kind of magic school?!” Luz asked eagerly. The trio looked at Eda, intrigued as well.

“There sure is, and it’s an absolute nightmare!” Eda shouted. “Worse thing about it, they force you to learn magic the ‘proper’ way. But magic isn’t proper; it’s wild and unpredictable. And that’s why it’s so beautiful.” She explained. Besides, I didn’t finish school, and look at me! Who wouldn’t envy where I am right now?” She asked as she stood completely surrounded by trash.

“I guess you have a point…” Luz quietly admitted. She looked sadly at the ground, her expectations once again ruined. Eda saw Luz’s expression and felt bad about what she said, remembering their conversation from the other night.

“Sorry Luz, I shouldn’t have said it like that. I just don’t think what they’re doing is best for kids. Not to mention I had some bad experiences with school when I was your age…” Eda apologized. She looked around the trash to find something to cheer her up and noticed a green puddle. “Hey, you said you wanted a lesson, right? Here, I’ve got one for you.” She grabbed Luz’s hand and made their way over to the puddle. “A great witch is always resourceful, like this.” She said as she forced Luz’s hand into the puddle. Luz was disgusted as she moved her hand through the puddle, until she felt something and grabbed it.

“Oh, hey. A greasy slimeball…” Luz said unenthusiastically as she took her hand out of the puddle.

“Use your slimeball wisely, young witch. You’ll never know when it’ll be handy.” Eda instructed as she placed her hand over the slimeball. “Alright, let’s get back to it! C’mon, we’ll hit the stink nodes first.” She said as she made her way through the trash and closer to the trash slug’s mouth.

“Actually, if it’s okay, I think I’ll head home and look at some pictures of animals that are still alive.” Luz said as she put the slimeball in her pocket.

“Want us to come back with you?” Sora offered.

“No, it’s fine. I remember which direction we came from, and the house isn’t too far away from here.” Luz insisted as she started to walk away. “Love you, King, you little beach peach!” She said as she rubbed King’s stomach. The trio waved goodbye to her as she made her way through the forest.

“Well, more for me, then.” Eda stated. “Hey, you three, you want in on any of this action?”

“There’s no way I’m going inside that thing’s mouth!” Donald shouted.

“How about we stay out here and help organize whatever you find?” Goofy suggested.

“Sure, that works.” Eda’s voice echoed from inside the trash slug. She began to throw objects out of the trash slug’s mouth, scattering them on the ground. The trio didn’t want to touch anything that was inside the trash slug’s mouth, so they cast Water on anything that Eda threw out first. Once the objects were “clean”, they began separating everything into three sections: Donald took care of anything damaged or broken since he knew how to repair the Gummiship, Goofy took care of boxes and barrels along with anything inside them, and Sora took anything that wasn’t damaged so it could be sold at Eda’s store. After a while, Eda crawled back out of the trash slug’s mouth, holding an orange ball.

“Wow, not bad, you three!” Eda said, impressed at the trio’s ability to organize.

“What’s that orange ball you have, Eda?” Goofy asked curiously.

“This is what we were after the whole time: the trash slug’s eggs. Sure, I can sell everything you’ve just organized, but in the hands of the right people, these eggs are crazy expensive!” Eda explained as she closely examined it. “There’s still loads of them inside, so I’ll leave them with you three while I grab the rest.”

“I’m not touching any of those things!” Donald shouted as he folded his arms.

“Ugh, fine. King, watch over the eggs while I grab the rest of them!” Eda ordered as she threw the egg over to King, who just barely caught the egg before it hit the ground.

“I’m starting to get worried about Luz going through The Boiling Isles alone. I think I’m gonna head back and make sure she made it back in one piece.” Sora admitted.

“It’s probably for the best that someone makes sure the kid’s still alive…” Eda said. She looked over at the three piles and noticed how small the pile of intact objects was. “The pile’s small enough that I can take it all back, including the eggs. You three can go back and meet up with Luz. Once I’m done gathering the eggs, we’ll sell them off and return to home.” She stated.

“Great, we’ll see you then.” Sora said as the trio began to walk home, following Luz’s path.

The trio made their way through the same forest that Luz went through to make it back home. When they were certain that they were far enough away, they started talking to each other.

“How come you wanted to check on Luz so badly, Sora?” Goofy asked. “I’m sure if she ran into any Heartless, she would come back to us.”

“It’s not the Heartless I’m worried about; it’s Luz losing faith in Eda and her teachings again. I just want to make sure that she doesn’t get discouraged.” Sora explained.

“That magic school does sound pretty tempting to join, though.” Donald admitted. “After all, joining that school could be better for all of us.”

“It does sound tempting, but we have to trust Eda and her methods, even though they’re quite strange…” Sora said. “Remember, we all made a promise with Eda. I don’t plan to break it anytime soon.”

“But what did Miss Eda mean when she said that magic was unpredictable? Wouldn’t controlling it and doing what you want with it make it more beautiful?” Goofy asked, confused.

“Maybe she meant natural magic that occurs in this world instead of magic that we cast.” Donald guessed. “Though I still don’t understand how magic in this world really works…”

Suddenly, the ground began to shake and they heard someone screaming in the distance. Worried, the trio ran over to see what caused the screaming. As they got closer, they saw large vines thrashing in the sky. When they reached the source of the vines, they found many sprouting out of the ground by someone standing in the center with a large cauldron knocked over next to her. They also noticed Luz on the ground in front of the mysterious person with vines entangling her feet and preventing her from escaping. The trio summoned their weapons and stood in front of Luz.

“Let her go, now!” Sora demanded. The girl turned around, her eyes glowing green as the vines continued to flail around angrily. Suddenly, her eyes stopped glowing and the vines stopped moving.

“Oh, no no no no no! I’m so sorry!” The girl apologized. She ran closer to Luz and moved her hand to the side, causing the vines to let go of Luz and return to the ground. The trio were surprised at how quickly the girl apologized and unsummoned their weapons.

“Are you okay?” Sora asked as he offered his hand to Luz.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine. The thorns only went through a few layers of skin.” Luz reassured him as she rubbed her legs, which thankfully weren’t bleeding. The girl leaned closer to Luz and Sora, looking closely at their ears.

“So… circley.” She observed. Luz and Sora remembered how the other people treated them for being humans and panicked. Luz covered her ears with her hands while Sora put on his hood, but they were too late. “You’re humans!” The girl shouted, amazed. “This is astounding, humans on the Boiling Isles!! How’d you get here? What are you doing here?” She asked eagerly as she helped Luz up and examined her and Sora. Suddenly, bells began ringing in the distance, and the girl’s joy vanished almost instantly. “I’m sorry, I can’t stay. I have to go disappoint my teacher. It was nice to meet you, humans.” She said as she walked over to the knocked-over cauldron. The trio looked at her with confusion, but Luz looked at her with concern.

“Wait!” Luz shouted as she ran up to the girl, stopping her. “I’m Luz. And you’re Willow, right? What you did with that flower and those plants, it was… wow!” She said, fascinated.

“Yeah! That was really impressive magic that you did!” Goofy complemented.

“Thanks, but… I’m not even supposed to be doing plant magic.” Willow sadly admitted. “My parents put me in the abomination track at school…”

“Abomination magic? I’ve never heard of that kind of magic before.” Donald said, wondering how they worked.

“Wait, you mean like a magic school?! That’s so cool!” Luz said as she vigorously shook Willow. “I’m so jealous. I have a teacher, but her lessons are a bit… untraditional. I bet she wouldn’t even let me enroll. But I wish I could, even if it was for one day…”

“I wish I could get a passing grade for once. Then people would finally stop calling me ‘Half-a-Witch Willow’…” Willow mourned as she kicked a purple puddle in front of her, causing an eyeball to drift across it as a mouth formed and moaned. The trio looked at it with horror, but they were starting to get used to the strangeness on the Boiling Isles.

“Hey, wait. I know how we can both get what we want; make me your abomination!” Luz stated as she covered herself in some of the purple goo. “I’ll get you a good grade, and you can get me into magic school. It’s fiendishly clever!”

“Wait, you want to do what?!” Willow shouted in disbelief.

“I saw that other girl’s abomination: it’s just chunks of stuff that talks weird. Well, I’m chunks of stuff, and I talk weird!” Luz explained.

“That’s true…” Willow said, blushing.

“Hold on Luz, are you sure doing this is a good idea?” Sora asked. “I mean, what about the promise you made with Eda?”

“I know, I remember the promise I made to her, and I plan to keep it. But you have to admit, we haven’t been doing anything besides making deliveries and restocking her shop. We haven’t learned any magic at all! This is our chance to finally learn some magic!” Luz protested.

“But what about what Miss Eda said about school not teaching magic the proper way?” Goofy reminded her.

“Right now, I don’t know the difference between the proper way and the improper way because Eda never bothered to teach me the proper way in the first place! Honestly, I’ll settle for doing the improper way for now, then Eda can teach me the proper way to use the magic I learned. That way, I can improve what I already know, and can do the proper way for later magic I learn.” Luz explained.

“Won’t Eda be mad that you left her to try and learn magic a different way, especially since you’re her apprentice?” Donald questioned.

“Probably, but I’m sure she’ll get over it. She doesn’t really hold any grudges against us, except for whenever you three start talking. And how about this: if I end up not liking the magic school, I will leave it and not come back to it. How does that sound?” Luz stated.

“Okay, I think that’ll work out.” Sora conceded. “But we’re gonna go with you so we can keep you out of trouble.”

“You’re just curious about the school as well, aren’t you?” Luz asked.

“Well, it does sound pretty interesting.” Goofy admitted.

“Will it be okay if we disguise ourselves as abominations as well, Willow?” Donald asked.

“Four abominations for one class project… I guess that can work.” Willow decided. “Okay, it’s a deal then!” She said as she extended her arm.

“This’ll be a great plan!” Luz said as she shook Willow’s hand, but they got stuck together and wouldn’t separate. Luz and Willow pulled with all their strength, but the goo kept their hands together. Sora summoned his Keyblade and cut the goo without any warning, causing Luz to fall into the abomination goo.

“Yep, definitely a great plan…” Luz said, struggling to get back on her feet. Everyone laughed at the plan, knowing it wasn’t great, but still decided to go along with it anyway. The trio placed some goo on themselves until they were almost completely covered in it.

“How do we look?” Sora asked as he tried to spike his hair again after getting some goo in it.

“You look great! Now we better hurry before I’m late to class.” Willow answered as she gestured to the cauldron. “Oh, but it’s a bit small… Are you sure all four of you can fit in it?”

“It does look like a tight fit, but I’m sure we’ll have enough room.” Goofy said as he climbed inside the cauldron.

“The three of us will take the edges of the cauldron. Luz, you get in the center of it.” Donald explained as he climbed in as well.

“I guess I’ll be the center of attention then!” Luz squealed happily as she climbed in after Sora. Sure enough, there was very little room for everyone, but they were at least able to all stand and fit through the top. With everyone ready, Willow started pushing the cart the cauldron was on and made her way to school.

“So, your name is Luz, right?” Willow asked as she kept pushing the cart.

“Yep! That’s me, Luz Noceda!” Luz said proudly.

“And, the others?” Willow asked the trio.

“My name’s Sora, and these are my best friends, Donald and Goofy.” Sora introduced everyone.

“It’s nice to officially meet you, Sora, Donald, and Goofy!” Willow happily replied.

“Sorry for almost attacking you earlier.” Goofy apologized.

“We thought you were trying to hurt Luz.” Donald defended.

“That’s okay. I understand why you thought that. I really didn’t mean to hurt you though, and I’m still sorry about it…” Willow apologized.

“Don’t worry about it, I forgive you! Besides, I was too focused on your magic to even notice the pain.” Luz explained.

“Thanks, it means a lot to hear that someone likes my magic.” Willow said, blushing. “But there’s something I don’t fully understand: Sora, if you're a human, how do you have your own magical staff?” She asked, perplexed.

“Well… I— you see— I’ll tell you about it later when we’re not in such a rush.” Sora said, his eye twitching. “I really don’t want to explain everything again…” He said under his breath.

“It’s quite a long story, and we don’t have much time to talk about it right now.” Donald tried to back Sora up.

“Maybe we can tell you about it when school is over.” Goofy offered.

“I’d love to! I have a friend who’s obsessed with humans. He’d love to be able to meet all of you!” Willow said.

“Ooh, mysterious witch friend! Can’t wait to meet them!” Luz said happily.

“He’s not that mysterious; he’s really nice and interested about the human world.” Willow laughed. “Looks like we finally made it.” She said as she pointed behind them. When they turned around, they saw a massive building with multiple towers and a large central entrance. Other people were walking towards the entrance, all with books in their hands.

“Welcome to Hexside School of Magic and Demonics.” Willow introduced. Luz and the trio stared at the building with fascination as they saw other people entering as well. “Remember to stay hidden, okay?” Willow reminded them. One by one, they went back into the cauldron as Willow put the lid on.

It was pitch-black inside the cauldron, but many voices from other students could be heard. There were too many conversations going on to glean any information from, but they were all talking about classes and assignments. Suddenly, they stopped moving, but no one wanted to risk looking outside to see what had happened. Then, they were able to hear a male voice very clearly.

“Willow, you would not believe humans.” He said enthusiastically.

“Humans?! I haven’t seen any! What?” Willow said, panicking.

“Did you know that humans nail barbed wire to their kids’ teeth? But why? Maybe to make them magnetic.” The male voice pondered.

“Actually, it’s for storing treats.” Luz said, forgetting about staying hidden.

“I don’t get it, how are wires supposed to help store something?” Sora asked, also forgetting about staying hidden. “Plus, that sounds very painful…”

“It is at first, but the pain is more than worth it.” Luz explained. “Hang on, are you saying you never had braces? Wow, I don’t know whether to pity or envy you.” The correct answer was “envy,” but neither of them know that.

“Uhh, what was that?” The male voice asked, both intrigued and horrified.

“Okay Augustus, I’m gonna show you something, but you have to be cool.” Willow said as she removed the lid of the cauldron, allowing the group to see outside.

“I can be spool, I-I-I mean cool.” Augustus stammered.

“Okay. Abomination, rise.” Willow politely ordered.

“I think that’s our que!” Luz said excitedly as the group tried to stand up. They were too excited about it, and ended up hitting their heads against each other as they tried to get through the cauldron. They tried again, this time going one at a time, and made it through this time. Donald stood in the front, Sora stood to the left, Goofy stood to the right, and Luz stood in the center.

“Ta-da! We’re abominations!” They announced as they did a group pose. Augustus stared at them with amazement, while Willow looked at them annoyed.

“Guys, that’s not how abominations act!” Willow politely scolded. “We’ll get in big trouble if you don’t act properly.”

“No… it couldn’t be…” Augustus gasped as he pointed to his and Luz’s ears.

“He’s the president of the Human Appreciation Society. Most witches wouldn’t be able to recognize a human right away, but Augustus is an expert. It’s thanks to him that I recognized you two as humans so quickly.” Willow explained.

“Where are your gills?!” Augustus frantically asked now that there was a real human in front of him.

“Huh? Humans don’t have any gills…” Sora clarified, confused about how he got that information.

“I knew an Augustus back in the human world. We called him Gus.” Luz reminisced.

“Gus? Nickname? Human nickname? Gus?! Call me it!” Gus said, overjoyed. “Wow… Gus! This is the best day of my life!!” He began to celebrate, but it was cut short by a combination of a bell ringing and a voice screaming. “I’ve gotta get to spelling class… I’ll see you guys at lunch!” He said as he ran the other way.

“All right, back into darkness you go.” Willow ordered the group. They all moaned, which only ended up making them laugh, as they went back in one at a time. Willow was about to put the lid back on, but Sora stopped her.

“Hold on, Willow. How exactly do abominations act?” Sora asked.

“They just kinda moan, move strangely, and do whatever order is given to them. You’ll do fine, as long as you don’t talk without being given an order to do so.” Willow explained.

“Oh, that’s not so bad! Even Goofy can do that! Alright, let’s go and impress your teacher!” Sora said enthusiastically. Willow put the lid back on and started pushing the cart towards a classroom. She entered the room and put the cart next to her seat as she sat down. Other voices could be heard as more people entered the room, each with their own cauldron for their abominations. Finally, the teacher entered the room and started the lesson.

“Settle down class.” The teacher ordered. “Now, let’s get this project over with as quickly as possible so we can move on with today’s lesson. Who would like to go first?” There was a long pause. “Fine… you’ll be presenting first. Come up and present your abomination to the class.” He said as he pointed to one of the students.

One by one, the students presented their abominations, but they did not go well. The teacher kept pointing out things that were wrong with them, such as not enough eyes, too many toes, and being the wrong color. The teacher got progressively more angry with each abomination that was presented as he continued to fail every student.

“Pathetic! The biggest abominations are all of you!” The teacher finally shouted. “If the next abomination is a failure, everyone gets extra homework for a month!” The students all groaned at the announcement, and it made Luz and the trio worry even more about messing up. “And the next one to come up is…” The teacher looked around the room, but was cut off.

“Excuse me, sir, but I am ready to present my abomination.” A girl’s voice announced. She cleared her throat and shouted “Rise!” causing her abomination to rise out of her cauldron.

“I’ve always saved the best for last, Amity.” The teacher laughed. “You’ll have to wait your turn. Now, how about… Willow.” He announced. The other students all booed her and complained about getting extra homework, which made Willow embarrassed and put on her hood.

“Don’t listen to them, Willow.” Sora whispered.

“We can do this!” Luz quietly encouraged.

Willow began to smile again and put her hood down. She pushed her cart up to the front of the class. “Uh… Abominations, rise.” She ordered timidly.

Together, Luz and the trio pushed on the lid, knocking it into the air and landing behind them. Donald, Goofy, Sora, and Luz jumped out of the cauldron in that order and struck heroic poses as they landed. The entire class, including the teacher, was shocked to see Willow create an “abomination”, let alone four of them, but one student was more shocked than the rest. The student was a girl, had green hair, and had a gold star on her uniform. She stared at the “abominations” in utter disbelief, almost with hatred.

“Abominations, bow.” Willow instructed them. Luz gave a very deep bow with both her arms to her side, as if she was bowing at a dance, while the trio stood at attention and bowed, as if they were bowing to Yen Sid.

“My, Willow, this many at once is very impressive!” The teacher admitted. “But do they speak?” Luz and the trio exchanged nervous glances between each other, not knowing what to say and who was going to speak first. Finally, Luz began to speak, and the trio tried to follow along with her.

“Um… I may be your abomination, but you’re my a-mom-ination!” Luz joked as she grabbed Willow’s hands and nestled up against her face. The trio weren’t that great at copying Luz, but they still managed to convince the class. Instead of holding Willow’s hand, they each placed a hand on Willow’s shoulder.

Every student found their actions adorable, except for that one girl. She looked around at the other students with disbelief that they would even find that funny or even cute. She knew something was wrong with the “abominations”, but was staying quiet about it.

“‘A-mom-ination!’ Splendid wordplay!” The teacher said, still laughing. He made his way over to Luz and the trio with a paintbrush dipped in red ink. “A+!” He announced as he wrote that on their foreheads.

The students cheered for Willow, as the threat of homework was now gone. However, the one girl stared at them with hatred. Luz and the trio looked at Willow, who exchanged proud glances.

“Abominations, return.” Willow ordered. Luz and the trio went back inside the cauldron the same order they left, and Willow put the lid back on. She pushed the cart back to her seat and sat back down, beaming with pride.

The other students presented their abominations, although they weren’t anywhere near as good as Willow’s. Even Amity was upset when she didn’t get as good a grade as Willow. For the rest of the class, they talked more about the nature of abominations and their use in the olden times. Luz and the trio couldn’t understand most of what was being said, partly because they were being stored in a cast-iron cauldron, but mostly because they had no prior knowledge about abominations, and they tried their best to gain any information they could.

Once class ended, Willow began to move the cart out of the room, but the teacher stopped her from leaving.

“Phenomenal work today, Willow!” The teacher complimented. “How come you chose to make four abominations for today’s project?”

“Well… I know I’ve been doing poorly in your class, sir, so I really wanted to try and do my best for this project.” Willow made up. “I guess I was hoping I could get some extra credit if I made multiple abominations…?”

“I understand, and I think you certainly earned it!” The teacher agreed. “In fact, it looks like we have a new top student!”

“What?!” Amity shouted, stopping in her tracks as she was about to exit the room. The teacher took the gold star off of Amity’s uniform and put it on Willow’s.

“Oh! Um… thank you, sir.” Willow said, surprised yet overjoyed. She looked at the gold star with pride as the teacher walked out of the room. When she stopped looking at her new star, she was Amity right in front of her, staring with hatred.

“Last time I saw you, your abomination was mush. What did you do to it, and how did you make four?” Amity interrogated.

“I, uh… took your pep talk to heart, Amity.” Willow quickly said, panicking.

“I bet you did… I’ve got my eyes on you, Half-a-Witch. That badge is mine!” Amity threatened as she stormed out the classroom. With the room empty, Willow took the lid off the cauldron and everyone poked their heads out.

“I think Amity is onto us…” Willow said, worrying.

“It sounds like she’s really upset about not getting the best grade in the whole class.” Goofy pointed out.

“I guess you two met earlier today, right?” Sora asked Luz.

“Yeah, I saw the two of them talking. Amity was really making fun of Willow, and she got mad and did that plant magic. You three showed up just after that mocking ended.” Luz explained.

“We better stay away from her as best we can for the rest of the day.” Donald advised.

“So, ready for the other classes?” Willow asked. “You four should be fine. I’ll give you the order to rise, copy, and return for each class, so you can get outside the cauldron and learn as well.”

“Great! Let’s get to class!” Luz said enthusiastically as she dived back into the cauldron. The trio dived in after her and Willow put the lid back on. She pushed the cart as they began to make their way to other classes.

They attended a couple of different classes before it was time for lunch; one was about history, one was about literature, and one was about mathematics. Each class allowed Willow to have her “abominations” work as well, so Luz and the trio got out of the cauldron and wrote down some notes as well. Amity wasn’t in any of the other classes, so they weren’t as afraid of getting caught. Luz eagerly wrote down everything the teachers said, Donald wrote down everything about magic and how to use it, Goofy wrote down everything about the history of the Boiling Isles, and Sora didn’t write anything, spending most of his time staring at the teacher and pondering how unique the Boiling Isles was from all the other worlds he’s visited.

During the last class before lunch, while Sora was pondering about the Boiling Isles, a quiet knock snapped him out of his little daydream. When he looked to see what caused it, he saw Eda looking through a window, staring at Luz with a devastated expression. Sora was shocked that she found them and was afraid of her getting angry, but instead she just sulked. She leaned away from the window and began shouting.

“No! Why school?!” Sora could faintly Eda cry out as she walked away from the window. She looked at the ground with a defeated expression as she walked out of sight. Sora looked at Luz and back to the window where Eda was with sadness, and he began to regret allowing himself and Luz to come to Hexside. They never learned any magic, but to Eda, it was like they already broke their promise with her… Sora couldn’t get his mind over Eda’s disappointed expression for the rest of the class.

Afterwards, it was time for lunch. Willow brought the cauldron towards the end of a table and took off the lid, allowing the group to pop out of the top and lean on the edge.

“Luz, we really should head back to Eda when this is all over.” Sora said.

“Huh? But what about hanging out with Willow and Gus?” Luz protested.

“Look… I saw Eda outside one of the windows during a class, and I can’t get over her expression…” Sora confessed.

“Oh geez… How angry was she at us?” Luz asked, suddenly very worried.

“She wasn’t angry at all, but rather… heartbroken. I’ve never seen her that sad before…” Sora explained.

“Heartbroken?! But about what? We haven’t learned any real magic today.” Luz recalled, still worried.

“Gawrsh, maybe it’s because she thought you broke her promise with her, especially after talking about not liking school.” Goofy suggested.

“She must’ve been really looking forward to teaching you if she acted that sad seeing us here…” Donald pointed out.

“But how could she? All we’ve done is restock her shop and rummage around some dead creatures!” Luz argued.

“I’m not her, but I really do think Eda cares about you. She really has been putting in the effort to try and be more kind to you and teach you some lessons.” Sora said.

“Yeah, that lesson about being ‘resourceful’ was very original and well thought out.” Luz said sarcastically. “She just made that up on the spot!”

“Hey! Being resourceful is a great lesson that everyone should learn!” Donald shouted.

“Yeah! The three of us use it all the time when fighting Heartless and when using synthesis materials.” Goofy clarified, conveniently leaving out the part where they go digging around trash for food.

“I think that’s why Eda was so heartbroken about seeing you in school: you don’t get the opportunity to learn these life lessons. They aren’t meant to be something you can write down or learn from a book; they’re something you have to experience first-hand. I think Eda wanted to teach you some of these life lessons along with some magic, even though there’s a lot of risk involved with them.” Sora explained.

“I… I guess you’re right…” Luz quietly admitted as she pulled out the slimeball in her pocket. She stared at it with confliction before putting it back in her pocket. “Okay, we should go back to Eda when school’s over.” She declared. “Sorry Willow, but we’ll have to meet up with you and Gus another day once this is over.” She said with sadness as she turned towards Willow.

“I don’t fully know what you’re talking about, but if you need some time to talk things out with someone else, then by all means go and do it!” Willow encouraged Luz. “I’ll tell Gus the news when he comes here, but we can definitely meet up some time later this week.”

“What news do you have to tell me?” Gus asked as he approached the group and sat across from Willow.

“We have to go back home as soon as school is over, but we can meet again sometime soon.” Sora explained.

“Aww… but I wanted to learn so much about humans now that I finally met one with my own eyes!” Gus complained.

“I know, and I’m sorry that we have to leave so soon, but I’ll tell you all about the human world the next time we meet!” Luz promised.

“Don’t worry, I trust you. Besides, that just means I have more time to think of questions to ask you about the human world!” Gus said as he pulled out a sandwich from a brown paper bag. “Oh, you’re probably hungry too since it’s lunchtime. Hey, do humans eat PB&J?” He asked as he presented his sandwich to the group.

“Oh my gosh! I haven’t eaten real food in so long… Please give me some!” Luz begged. Gus split his sandwich in half and gave half to Luz, who immediately put it in her mouth and sank back into the cauldron.

“Do you three want some?” Gus offered, despite how little a ration that would actually be.

“We’re good for now. Honestly, we don’t very often.” Sora confessed as he started laughing. Everyone just kinda looked at him with confusion.

“I don’t know if that was a good idea Gus…” Willow said nervously. “If Amity saw that—” Willow was cut off by Amity jumping onto the table, startling everyone. Willow and Gus looked at her with fear, while Sora, Donald, and Goofy went limp and slumped over the edge of the cauldron.

“I saw everything! Abominations don’t eat or converse with each other!” Amity shouted as she got in Willow’s face. She made her way towards the cauldron. “You can’t hide in there either!” She shouted as she pulled Luz out of the cauldron. “What are you?! Who are you?! I want answers!!” She interrogated the four “abominations”. She was making a huge scene and gathering the attention of other students nearby.

“Amity Blight!” The abomination teacher shouted as he entered the cafeteria to see what the commotion was about. “I suspected a twinge of jealousy, but this? This is just sad…”

“But I… No! Just look at them!” Amity protested as she grabbed Luz and Sora by their shirts. The two of them groaned to try and fool the teacher. Thankfully, it worked.

“Report to Principal Bump’s office.” The teacher ordered.

“But… But…!” Amity tried to fight back.

“Now!!” The teacher demanded. Amity reluctantly let go of Luz and Sora, jumping off the table and running out of the room. The teacher followed her out of the room to make sure she went to the Principal’s office. When they were gone, everyone exchanged nervous looks with each other.

“Well, at least she’s off our back now.” Gus tried to cheer them up.

“I don’t know, she seemed pretty determined to go after us.” Donald pointed out as quietly as possible.

“But why does she want to go after us so much?” Goofy asked.

“She must be pretty jealous of you for becoming the top student.” Luz guessed.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about her anger, it’s getting out of hand…” Sora said nervously.

“It might be best if you all stay inside the cauldron for the rest of the day. Everyone’s suspicious of us, and we should try and avoid drawing any attention…” Willow suggested. They nodded in agreement and went back into the cauldron. Willow put the lid back on, and for the rest of the day, the four of them stayed within the cauldron. They could hear the lessons that were going on, but they couldn’t see the board or books, so just hearing a lot of the information wasn’t helpful.

Once all classes were over for the day, Willow and Gus brought the cauldron into the empty abomination classroom and took off the lid.

“Okay, the coast is clear. You can come out now.” Willow said.

“Whoo! I’m a sweaty abomination…” Luz said as she finally got out of the cauldron. The trio got out afterwards and stretched after being cramped around the sides of the cauldron.

“Now that the day’s over, we won’t have to worry about Amity anymore!” Sora pointed out.

“Yeah, we did it! Great work team! High-five!” Luz cheered as she extended her arms towards Willow and Gus. They looked at each other with confusion.

“Is this a human thing?” Willow asked.

“You mean you’ve never heard of a high-five before?!” Donald asked, perplexed.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll both enjoy it a lot!” Goofy encouraged them.

“All you do is slap someone’s hand with your hand. Here, we’ll show you.” Sora explained as he high-fived Luz. Willow and Gus watched closely with fascination as it happened.

“See? Now you try it.” Luz cheerfully instructed as she extended her arm towards Willow and Gus again. This time, Gus approached her and gave a very slow high-five, nervous about how it would feel. However, once he did it, his face gleamed with happiness.

“Oh wow… Oh man…! What a rush!” Gus said as he continued to high-five Luz, gaining more speed and becoming more enthusiastic each time. “Willow, you’ve gotta try this!” He insisted as he moved out of the way. Willow began to approach Luz to high-five her, but was stopped when the door suddenly slammed open.

Amity opened the door and looked at the group with intimidation. She held the door open as a tall, old man in a black robe and a demon over half his face entered the room. “Good afternoon, students.” He greeted them ominously.

“Principal Bump…” Willow and Gus said, frightened. As soon as they said his name, Luz and the trio went limp and fell to the ground, pretending to be abominations again. Willow and Gus moved out of the way as Principal Bump got closer. He examined each of the four, carefully studying them as they tried not to panic again. Eventually, he stopped examining them and stepped back.

“Abominations, rise.” Principal Bump ordered. They proceeded to stand up. “Abominations, lie.” He ordered again. They shared nervous glances again about what to say, but the trio ended up following Luz’s lead again as best they could.

“Uh… Viral fame is a worthy pursuit. Your cat would never eat you if it got the chance. Chemtrails are real—” Luz said with the trio echoing after her.

“Oh, no, abominations. How strange for all of you to get the command wrong. I mean lie down.” Principal Bump cut them off as he pointed to one of the tables. Luz and the trio slowly walked over to the table and lied on top of it, petrified by fear.

“So very lifelike…” Principal Bump pointed out. “When Miss Blight told me about your abominations, I had to come by, see what they’re made of.” He explained to Willow as they walked over to the table Luz and the trio were lying on.

“Oh, I have the list of ingredients right here…” Willow said as she struggled to pull out the list from her pocket.

“No. We were hoping… for a closer look.” Principal Bump said ominously as he pulled out a knife from his sleeve. Luz and the trio stared at the knife with fear, knowing what was about to happen to them. “Willow, I’ll allow you the first cut.” He said as he handed over the knife. Willow smiles nervously as she walks close to the table.

“Uh, you can’t just cut open a human, can you?” Willow whispered. Luz and the trio slowly shook their heads, even more afraid now.

“Willow, go ahead and make the first incision.” Principal Bump insisted.

“Wait, Principal Bump! Uh… high five!” Gus shouted as he slapped nearby cauldrons, spilling them and unleashing the abominations within. The abominations mindlessly wandered towards Amity and Principal Bump, causing a diversion. Sora, Donald, and Goofy leaped off the table and summoned their weapons, standing in front of the door.

“You three, get outta here! We’ll hold them off!” Sora shouted. Willow helped Luz off the table, and together they left the classroom with Gus behind them.

“Argh! I knew you weren’t real abominations!” Amity shouted as she clenched her fists in anger. “You three and that other intruder made me look like a fool in front of everyone!” Darkness began to swirl around her fists. “I’ll make you all pay for embarrassing me! [Abominations, seize!!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeYYv027BWw)” She demanded as she pointed at the trio.

The abominations suddenly stopped moving and faced the trio, their eyes turning red. They melted into the floor and gathered in front of the trio, the purple mess of body parts swirling together. Suddenly, the abominations sprouted up from the ground, forming a massive ball of purple ooze. Their mouths formed to create one mouth, full of sharp teeth created out of hardened sludge. Their eyes gathered together to create a pattern resembling angry eyes, glowing blood red. Their appendages convened into strange hands, longer than its entire body. Finally, there was a black symbol resembling an outline of a heart covered in spikes. Everyone stared at the combined abomination (literally) that Amity managed to create with shock. The new abomination roared and charged forward at the trio. Not prepared for the abomination to appear, they weren’t able to guard in time and were launched out of the room as it charged into them, slamming them against lockers on the opposite side of the hall. Luz, Willow, and Gus stopped running and saw the trio lying against the lockers, injured. They tried to run over and help them up, but the trio stopped them from getting any closer by jumping off the ground and getting closer to them. As they jumped off the ground, the abomination charged at the trio again, but missed and slammed into the lockers. When they saw the abomination, they immediately turned around and began running away again, this time the trio following them as well in order to protect them.

“They’re getting away!” Amity shouted as she exited the classroom.

“No, the intruders won’t get far.” Principal Bump reassured her. He drew a circle on the wall and slammed both hands on it, causing red lines and circles to appear all over the walls.

“What is that thing?!” Gus shouted as they continued running.

“Amity created an Unversed out of the abominations, probably out of her hatred for us!” Sora guessed.

“That thing’s like a Lump of Horror, but somehow even worse!” Donald complained.

“Gawrsh, I guess we should call it a ‘Lump of Abominations’ then!” Goofy declared, half joking.

“I’m sorry everyone, this is all my fault. I just wanted to see what a real magic school was like…” Luz apologized as she stopped running.

“Well, how do you like it?” Willow asked.

“It’s lovely, actually!” Luz admitted as she began laughing.

“Okay, we should get out of here before—” Willow was cut off by the red lines and circles appearing on the walls around and past them. They appeared around the arches of the halls, creating barriers around them and blocking them off. “…Bump seals us in…” Willow said, discouraged.

“We may be sealed in, but we can still get to the exit!” Gus encouraged them.

“Come on, let’s get you three out of here before they catch up to us.” Sora insisted. They continued to run towards the exit, with Principal Bump, Amity, and the Lump of Abominations following shortly behind them.

They continued to run away, but the Lump of Abominations attacked the group with its arms. It stuck its arms into the ground, causing multiple streams of sludge to drip in front of the group. A hand rose at the end of each stream and tried to grab them. Sora slashed through the arms, cutting them off from the streams. Even though the arms were disconnected, they moved on their own and continued to try and grab the group. No matter how many times Sora cut up the hands, they didn’t stop chasing the group. When the Lump of Abominations ran into the sliced hands, it merged back into its body and shot them back out as fully reformed hands.

“What’s with this thing?! No matter how many times I attack it, it just reforms as if nothing happened! Why isn’t anything working?!” Sora complained.

“That’s the uh… appeal?… of abominations: they keep getting back up since they were never alive in the first place.” Willow explained.

“How’re we supposed to stop this thing if it won’t stay down?!” Luz cried out.

“We just need to get out of here!” Gus shouted. “Come on, we’re almost there!”

They continued to run away until they eventually came across a large circular opening with a hole in the center. They saw the front door on the opposite side of the hall, so Luz, Willow, and Gus ran over to the exit while Sora, Donald, and Goofy turned around to stall Principal Bump, Amity, and the Lump of Abominations. Before they could reach the door, it was blocked off by a barrier, trapping them in the room. The Lump of Abominations charged towards the trio, but they dodged out of the way, causing the Lump of Abominations with its slimy body to pass right through the guardrail and splattered against the first floor. That didn’t stop it, as it gathered again and changed the shape of its body. It had a very long and thin base that allowed it to reach up to the second floor. Its hands transformed into sharp wings and started swaying them vigorously, pushing everyone back. Suddenly, dozens of hands appeared on the walls, ceiling, and floor, all of them attacking. Luz, Willow, and Gus hid behind one of the pillars near the center as the trio tried to stop the Lump of Abominations.

“Oh, this is awful, I don’t know what to do! Amity’s right, I’m just Half-a-Witch Willow…” Willow sulked as she sat on the ground in shame.

“Come on Willow, you know that’s not true. You’re Full-Witch Willow; you’re incredible with plants!” Gus tried to encourage.

“We can still make it out of this, we just can’t give up! A great witch once told me that great witches are resourceful.” Luz said as she rummaged through her pockets. “There has to be something we can use to get out of here…” All she was able to pull out was the slimeball.

“That’s it!” Willow shouted as she took the slimeball.

“How exactly is that greasy slimeball going to help us?” Luz asked.

“Luz, that’s not a slimeball, it’s a seed!” Willow explained, gleaming with hope. “Thank goodness you had it on you.”

“Yeah, thank goodness someone told me to hold onto it.” Luz smiled, thankful for Eda’s advice.

“Please grow…!” Willow hoped as she drew a green circle above the seed. Suddenly, dozens of vines sprouted from the seed in every direction. They impaled the palms of the hands of the Lump of Abominations, pinning them and preventing them from moving. The vines attacked the Lump of Abominations directly, striking its body and splattering it back on the ground. When the central body stopped moving, the hands returned to ooze and dripped on the floor. The vines even attacked Principal Bump, ensnaring him and slamming against the roof. The trio stared at the vines with fascination as the thorns transformed into flowers, now covering the entire room.

“Willow, that was incredible!” Sora cheered as they regrouped. “You just single-handedly took down that Unversed!”

“I guess I just have a way with plants.” Willow blushed, trying to act humble. With Principal Bump ensnared, the barriers around the room disappeared, leaving the way to the exit clear.

“Look, the exit’s open!” Luz pointed out. They helped Willow up and made a run for the exit, but were stopped when Amity got in the way again.

“Not so fast! I’m not letting you get away so easily. I want my badge! Abominations, seize!” Amity shouted as she pointed at the group again, her hands still covered in darkness. The ooze began to gather behind the group, and the Lump of Abominations reformed.

The Lump of Abominations tried to charge at the group again, but the trio were ready to face it this time. Goofy stood in front and blocked its charge with his shield, Donald cast Blizzard and froze it in place, and Sora delivered multiple slashes to it, cutting it into multiple pieces. They began to run towards the exit again, but more hands from the Lump of Abominations blocked the door. The pieces of it thawed and reformed, creating multiple smaller versions of the Lump of Abominations, all closing in on the group. The trio fought back against the smaller versions, but they ended up combining again when they were all turned to ooze. Willow drew another circle and used it to control the vines, cutting through the hands blocking the door.

“You four, get outta here!” Willow ordered, struggling to keep the hands at bay.

“What?! No! We’re not leaving you!” Luz protested, but it didn’t work.

“I may get detention, but you’ll get dissected. So go!” Willow shouted. She controlled the vines to pick up Luz and the trio, moving them towards the exit. They tried to struggle and break free to help Willow and Gus, but they couldn’t escape. The only one who managed to escape was Sora by cutting through the vines that were carrying him. Luz, Donald, and Goofy were brought outside as the vines released them and closed the exit.

“Thanks for sticking with me, Gus. You really didn’t have to get involved with this.” Willow thanked him as they faced the Lump of Abominations getting closer.

“Of course! I’m not going to abandon you, you’re my friend!” Gus replied, smiling.

“Come on guys, don’t give up yet! We can still beat this thing!” Sora said as he jumped in front of them.

“Why didn’t you escape with everyone else?! It’s too dangerous for you to be here!” Willow shouted, baffled.

“Because we’re your friends, and we didn’t want to abandon you.” Sora reassured her. “I’m the only one that made it back, but I’m sure the others are trying to get Eda. We just have to last until they return.”

“How long will that take?” Gus asked, worried.

“A while, but I’m here to help protect you. Stay behind me and I’ll keep you safe!” Sora ordered. They nodded their heads and stood behind him as the Lump of Abominations got closer.

The Lump of Abominations created more hands, surrounding the group. Sora quickly sliced at the hands, disconnecting them as they tried to get closer. Sora pointed his Keyblade at the ground, casting Aero and creating a strong gust of wind, blowing the severed hands onto the ceiling and causing them to stick. The Lump of Abominations roared as it charged at the group. Sora ran towards the Lump of Abominations’ mouth and attacked it from the inside, stopping its charge and cutting through it. Sora delivered one final slash as he cut through the top of it, causing it to lose its form and melt back into a puddle. Sora got back in front of Willow and Gus, ready for it to get back up and attack again. Amity walked in front of the puddle of abominations, more furious than ever.

“You really think some imposter, a phony trickster, and Half-a-Witch Willow are going to stop me?! I’m not going to stop until you give back what’s mine!” Amity shouted as she pointed at the group. “Abominations—”

“That’s enough, all of you!” Principal Bump demanded. Everyone turned to face him, intimidated. “You’ve all caused enough damage to the school and you have nowhere else to run. Willow, explain yourself at once!”

“I… I was frustrated about doing poorly in the abominations track and I knew I was going to fail today’s project as well. That’s when I met some friends and they wanted to disguise themselves as abominations to help with my grades. I’m sorry Principal Bump, I didn’t mean to cause this much trouble. I know I’m gonna get detention for this…” Willow explained, frightened.

“Your grades have been atrocious, but after seeing your performance today when trying to escape, I believe I have a solution. Your plant magic was remarkable, especially for someone so young! I shall switch your track from abominations to plant magic. It’s best you stick with your strong suits.” Principal Bump declared. Willow, Gus, and Sora shared a group hug to celebrate Willow’s accomplishment.

“Does this mean we don’t have detention?” Gus asked.

“No, you two aren’t getting out of detention.” Principal Bump laughed. He looked carefully at Sora. “You don’t look familiar. You aren’t a student, are you?”

“Um… no, my friends and I aren’t students. We—” Sora began to explain.

“Good. From this day forward, you and your friends are banned from entering Hexside.” Principal Bump snapped his fingers and four posters appeared in front of Sora. Luz, Sora, Donald, and Goofy were on separate posters, each with the word “BANNED” written out above.

“Well… I guess it could be worse.” Sora admitted as he stuffed the posters in a pocket.

“Willow, I will see to it that you’re moved into the plant magic track by tomorrow morning. Willow and Gus, you shall start your detention tomorrow after class. And you, make sure you and your friends don’t return here.” Principal Bump repeated. “You three are free to go for today.” He dismissed them.

“Wait! What about my star?! She doesn’t deserve it for her project!” Amity bursted out, still angry.

“Very well… Willow, return the top student star to Amity.” Principal Bump sighed. Willow took it off her shirt and looked at it with sorrow. She walked over to Amity, who swiped it out of her hand and immediately put it back on. She looked at the star with pride, and the darkness around her hands vanished.

Principal Bump noticed how sad it made Willow to lose the star. “There’s no need to feel down about losing the placement of top student. After all, that one’s for the abomination track.” He pulled out another star from the inside of his sleeve. “This one is for the plant magic track. After seeing your performance, I believe you’ve earned it.” Willow took the new star and put it on, her face gleaming with happiness. “You three may go now. I have a lot of cleaning up to do today…” He said with dread.

They began to walk towards the exit, but stopped when they noticed the abomination goo was still moving around. It gathered at the puddle behind everyone and reformed into the Lump of Abominations. It roared as it tried to slam its arms down on Principal Bump and Amity, but Sora threw his Keyblade at it and cut off its arms. When they hit the ground, the goo began to create steam and disappeared entirely.

“Looks like you lost your source of darkness.” Sora noted. “Alright then, time to finish you off!” Sora recalled his Keyblade and concentrated, causing it to be engulfed in light. He ran towards the Lump of Abominations and swung around his Keyblade wildly, causing goo to go flying with every hit. He ended by swirling around in a circle and rising into the air, bringing the Lump of Abominations in the air with him. “You’re through!!” Sora shouted as he slammed against it with all his might from above, splattering it against the ground. This time, the scattered goo steamed and disappeared, unable to reform again. The Unversed symbol was resting in a pile of goo, which shattered and disappeared into a cloud of black smoke, vanishing. Everyone stared at Sora with amazement, for permanently destroying an abomination isn’t an easy feat.

“That was incredible!!” Gus shouted as he gathered around Sora. “What did you do?! How did you do that?! I have so many questions!!”

“I think you three have caused enough trouble for one day. Please, leave immediately.” Principal Bump insisted, slightly afraid of Sora’s powers.

“We should go meet up with the others. Do you know where they might’ve gone?” Willow asked, not seeing them outside the main entrance.

“Don’t worry, I know where they went. Follow me, I’ll take you to where we’re staying.” Sora insisted.

“Can today count as extra credit?” Amity asked eagerly. The group left before they heard the end of that conversation.

Sora led Willow and Gus to the Owl House, knowing that they would go there to try and ask Eda for help. As they got closer, Sora saw Eda holding King in her arms as she was talking to Luz, Donald, and Goofy. “Luz!” They called out as they got closer. Willow and Gus went to hug Luz, while Sora went to hug Donald and Goofy.

“Okay, seriously, what’s with this parallel arms thing you’re always doing?” Eda asked, both confused and irritated.

“You won’t believe it, Luz. Everything’s perfect now!” Willow cheered.

“It’s true, I don’t believe it!” Luz doubted, but she didn’t care because her friends made it back safe.

“Principal Bump was so impressed by my plant work that he’s switching me to the plant magic track! Look!” Willow explained as she snapped her fingers. She twirled in place and her uniform changed from purple to green. Everyone celebrated for Willow’s accomplishment, while Eda and King continued to stare in confusion.

“Oh, what happened with Amity?” Luz asked.

“Last we saw, she was asking Bump if today could count as extra credit. I think we’ll be fine.” Gus reassured her.

“Say, Sora, what happened with that Lump of Abominations?” Goofy asked.

“Well, it wasn’t easy, but that thing’s taken care of now. I think it was because Amity’s anger was finally quelled.” Sora guessed.

“Man, abominations sure are strange…” Donald pondered. “I hope we don’t have to fight anymore of those things…”

“Well, I can’t wait to see you two in action next time we sneak in.” Luz said happily. Everyone’s expressions quickly changed to fear.

“Uh, about that. You’re kinda, sorta… banned.” Gus explained nervously.

“Yeah… I don’t think we’re getting back in anytime soon.” Sora said as he showed the posters. Luz, Donald, and Goofy looked at the posters in horror, but Eda immediately smiled.

“I always suspected you three would get yourselves into trouble, but Luz getting banned?! Now that’s impressive for your first day! That’s my girl!!” Eda cheered, dropping King on the ground. He lands on his feet, but flops to the side out of sheer laziness.

“It’s okay, though. We could come here and teach you what we learned.” Willow offered.

“That would be nice, but… I have a pretty great teacher already.” Luz said as she faced Eda.

“Y-you still see me as your teacher?” Eda asked, touched by Luz’s remark.

“Of course! You teach more than just magic, but life lessons as well. In fact, I’m pretty sure we would be dead if you didn’t teach me about being resourceful. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings or break our promise when I was at school. I understand now that you have different methods of teaching, and I still want you to be my teacher.” Luz explained happily. Eda nearly teared up after hearing her, but stopped herself from crying.

“You hear that? Luz is my student, so back off academy twerps!” Eda joked as she snatched the poster of Luz from Sora. Everyone laughed at Eda’s remark. She looked at Luz’s wanted poster with pride. “Ah, baby’s first wanted poster. Good job, kid. Looks like I taught you something after all.” She proudly patted Luz’s head. “Sora, thanks for bringing her back. I really appreciate it.” Eda thanked him. Sora simply smiled back at her and nodded his head.

“Uh, you high five with your hands, not your head.” Gus corrected. Everyone laughed again.

Willow and Gus stayed at the Owl House for a while as everyone introduced themselves and got to know each other. When it was getting late, Willow and Gus headed home and talked about meeting again over the weekend. Once they left, Eda and King helped get the abomination goo off of Luz, Sora, Donald, and Goofy and called it a day. Luz, Eda, and King went back inside the Owl House while Sora, Donald, and Goofy went back to the Gummiship. Once they entered the Gummiship, Sora put up the posters on one of the walls and looked at them with pride. After a long and eventful day, the trio fell asleep easily and were looking forward to seeing their new friends again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: I hope you all enjoyed another chapter! I apologize for this chapter coming out late, these past two weeks have been very chaotic for me and I ended up having very little time to write. These chapters keep turning out to be much longer than I expected, but I do not think they are not long enough to be split into two separate chapters. I hope the references I make to the various Kingdom Hearts games make sense, and if they do not, I would be more than happy to explain them to anyone. I am having a lot of fun writing the interactions between the Kingdom Hearts characters and the Owl House characters, and I hope you are as well. I am looking forward to writing the next chapter and I can’t wait to write it. Once again, sorry for the delayed release and I will try to continue my schedule as normal again. Thank you for the continued support and I look forward to seeing you all in the next chapter!


	5. The Darkened Owl

A couple days have passed since Luz, Sora, Donald, and Goofy snuck into Hexside and got banned. Luz and the trio continued to do chores for Eda, and in return they learned more about the Boiling Isles; however, they have yet to learn any magic or do any sort of training. They have learned to be more patient with Eda and her methods, and Eda has begun to act more considerate towards everyone, but is still ordering them around. They have yet to see Willow or Gus again, who are still in detention after sneaking the group into school.

It was a dark and cloudy night when the trio left the Gummiship to store some synthesis materials they gained from fighting Heartless while doing chores. Once they dropped off the materials, they made their way to the Owl House and greeted Hooty.

“Hoot hoot! Hey guys!” Hooty greeted cheerfully. “You three just missed Eda.”

“We did? Where’d she go?” Sora asked. “We were only gone for a few minutes.”

“She ran off to do an emergency delivery, worried about the weather.” Hooty explained.

“Well, it does look a little stormy tonight…” Goofy noted. “Say fellas, maybe we’ll get some time off tonight!”

“So, how’re you three doing? Has anything new and exciting happen since last time?” Hooty eagerly asked.

“No Hooty, nothing new has happened since 10 minutes ago…” Donald said, annoyed. “Can you let us in now? It’s getting really humid out here…” He complained.

“Alright, alright, fine!” He said as he opened the door. “I’m always outside, and you never hear me complain about the weather!” He shouted as he slammed himself shut.

As they entered, they saw the entire front room completely rearranged. The couch was moved over to the side of the room, there was a curtain covering something on top of the chest in front of Eda’s massive wanted poster, and books were scattered across the floor. Luz was sitting on a bunch of books in the center of the room while King was on a sock that was torn to pieces. When Hooty slammed the door shut, they turned around and saw the trio standing there.

“Oh, oh! And here we have my best friends that do chores with me and are helping me train to become a powerful witch: Sora, Donald, and Goofy!” Luz announced as she faced the trio, holding her phone up to her face.

“Hey, Luz! What’re you doing with your phone?” Sora asked as he looked around the disorganized front room.

“I’m making a video about the Owl House so I can show everyone back at home.” Luz explained. “Man, I can’t wait to show this to everyone! They’ll have to believe me with this.”

“Hey, Luz, what’s a video? How does it work?” Donald asked.

“Really? A video is… man, how do I explain this?” Luz pondered. “A video’s a recording of images and noises of what just happened.” She explained as basically as possible. “You have your own phone, right? Can’t yours take videos?”

“Nope, our Gummiphone doesn’t have any videos. Say, fellas, why don’t we ask Chip and Dale to add that next time we see them?” Goofy suggested.

“Yeah, that’s a great idea! I’m sure they’ll have a blast designing it!” Donald agreed.

“So then, what do you have on your phone?” Luz asked, curious.

“Well, we mostly use it as a journal to keep track of the worlds we’ve been to, the people we’ve met, and the Heartless we’ve encountered. We can also use it to take pictures.” Sora explained as he took out his Gummiphone.

“Oh, pictures! Show me, show me, show me!!” Luz demanded eagerly.

“Yeah, show me those monsters of yours! I’ll be the judge of how scary these monsters are.” King demanded as he jumped off the sock’s remains.

Sora turned his Gummiphone around to show Luz, King, and her phone. He first showed them some of the many monsters they’ve fought, including Heartless, Nobodies, and Unversed. Then, he showed them a bunch of pictures he took on his adventure. He had a couple pictures of his friends, mostly the Guardians of Light, some pictures of a large circle with two smaller circles on the left and right sides near the top, and lots of pictures of Sora posing in front of monsters and other people, all half a second from getting hit. When Sora was finished showing his photos, Luz and King looked at him with concern.

“Yeah, those’re some pretty crazy monsters. I’m pretty sure some of those classify as demons…” King admitted.

“Sora… why do you have so many pictures of circles?” Luz asked, almost disappointed.

“Those aren’t just circles; they’re Lucky Emblems!” Donald aggressively corrected.

“Yeah, they’re the symbol of His Majesty!” Goofy backed him up.

“Okay, but… why do you have so many pictures of you right before you get hit?” Luz asked, extremely confused.

“I don’t know, it just felt like the right thing to do at the time.” Sora said as he gave an oblivious smile. Everyone looked at Sora with disappointment.

“Why didn’t either of you two try and stop him?” King asked, genuinely concerned about Sora’s safety.

“Trust us, we tried…” Donald and Goofy sighed.

“Should we not tell Ed about these?” Luz asked. “She tends to get pretty mad whenever you three explain anything, and I think this’ll just make her madder…”

“Nah, she’ll get a kick outta Sora nearly getting himself killed to get those pictures.” King answered.

“So, King, why’d you call me here in the first place?” Luz asked as she turned her phone back to King.

“Oh, right!” King remembered as he jumped on top of the chest. “Human Luz, you’ve been so obsessed with witchcraft that you haven’t learned anything about my kind. Prepare yourself for… Demons 101!” King shouted as he pulled down the curtain, revealing many photos of bizarre creatures. Everyone looked at the pictures with intrigue. Sora raised his hand.

“Uh… yes, Sora?” King asked, slightly confused about what he was doing.

“Mind if we join in on this class? We’d like to learn about this as well.” Sora pointed out.

“Sure, you three innocent clowns can join the class, if you can handle it!” King tried to be intimidating, but failed because he is just so darn cute. The trio sat next to Luz and paid close attention to King.

“Demons like me are grim tricksters of the twilight, creatures of sulfur and bone.” King began as he put on a scholarly cap.

“And cute little paws.” Luz pointed out. The trio quietly laughed among themselves.

“And cute little paws…” King reluctantly added. “We live only to create chaos and misery. Our only weaknesses are purified water and passive-aggressive comments… sometimes.” He continued.

“Wow, as beings of darkness, they can actually be pretty sensitive.” Sora admitted. “Guess I haven’t exactly tried talking to a Heartless before…”

“Even demons have inner demons. The most powerful demon of all is the Snaggleback.” King pointed to a picture of a demon with a shell covered in spikes. “He’s a—”

“Bad boy!” Luz shouted as a bunch of noises came from her phone. Everyone looked over at Luz’s phone, distracted.

“Luz, pay attention! This information could save your life someday!” King insisted. “At least you three are paying attention.”

“Paying attention: yes. Understanding: not exactly…” Sora confessed.

“Now you know how Eda and I feel whenever you start talking…” King shot back.

“No, no, I am so paying attention. This is my ‘paying attention’ face.” Luz tried to reassure King as she made a strange face. Everyone looked at Luz unconvinced, until they heard thunder coming from outside.

“Sounds like it’s gonna rain.” King noted.

“I love the rain!” Luz said as she ran outside.

“Really? I do too!” Sora admitted as she joined her outside. “It didn’t happen very often, but when it rained on Destiny Island, it was always so clean compared to the ocean.”

“That sounds so nice! I just love feeling the first few drops in my hair. I bet you enjoy it too, little buddy.” Luz said as she looked at a flower. A raindrop fell onto the flower, burning it. Sora and Luz stared at the flower with horror. Suddenly, it started to rain hard, causing steam clouds to appear whenever they landed. They observed the strange rain, paralyzed in fear, when they saw Eda running back to the Owl House.

“Boiling rain! Everyone inside, now!!” Eda shouted as she got closer. Eda grabbed Luz by the wrist and dragged her inside the house. Sora was still looking around in confusion until some boiling raindrops landed on him, burning him. Once the pain started setting in, Sora summoned his Keyblade and started twirling it above his head to try and prevent as many boiling raindrops from landing on him as possible as he made his way back inside the house. Once he entered, he unsummoned his Keyblade and saw Eda, Luz, and King lying on the ground with King’s stuff destroyed.

“Phew, that was close!” Eda laughed. “But the important thing is no one got hurt.”

“Yeah… not hurt…” Luz and Sora groaned in unison. Sora was covering his burn wounds and Luz was hit on the head by a falling mug.

“You going to be okay, Luz?” Sora asked as he extended his arm to her.

“I’ll be fine, it’s just some scrapes and bruises.” Luz reassured him as she grabbed his hand and got up.

“Well, so much for enjoying the rain…” Donald sighed.

“Are ya gonna be okay, Sora? That boiling rain looked pretty painful.” Goofy pointed out.

“C’mon, guys, we’ve been through so many fights together, this is nothing in comparison.” Sora reassured them. “Besides, a Cure spell can easily fix it.”

“Do you really need a spell for a couple of small wounds? I have some Band-Aids with me that’ll help heal you up.” Luz offered.

“Band-Aids? Wait, I thought you didn’t have any magic.” Sora said, confused.

“They don’t heal you instantly, they just protect it from getting worse. It takes some time, but you’ll feel better soon.” Luz explained.

“Sure, I’ll try them out!” Sora eagerly agreed.

“Great! Do you know where they are in my room, King?” Luz asked.

“Yeah, I remember. I’m gonna need one after you two crashed into me…” King grumbled as he rubbed his head. He made his way upstairs.

“So what’re we supposed to do, now that there’s boiling rain outside?” Sora asked.

“I’m gonna cast a barrier around the house so it doesn’t get damaged.” Eda said as she extended her arm and caught her staff.

“More magic!” Luz gasped. “Can I go and see you do it?!”

“Sure, why not. Just watch where you stand, don’t want the boiling rain to cook you.” Eda agreed. She twirled her staff above her head and formed a barrier in the shape of a dome and walked outside. The boiling rain evaporated when it hit the barrier, keeping Eda safe. She let go of her staff, which floated beside her, as she began to form a large ball of light with her hands. Luz and the trio walked outside, but stayed underneath the portico to say safe from the boiling rain. Sora and Luz put their hoods on just to be safe. King joined them shortly with a box of Band-Aids. King took out a Band-Aid and placed it on one of Luz’s scrapes. King then took a Band-Aid and put it on his head. Sora took one out and examined it closely before putting it on one of his burns. Luz, King, Donald, and Goofy helped cover the rest of Sora’s burns.

“There you go, all better now!” Luz exclaimed as she placed the last Band-Aid on Sora.

“Feeling any better, Sora?” Donald and Goofy asked.

“It’s weird… it didn’t really do anything, but I do feel better!” Sora said, amazed.

“There, now we’re boo-boo buddies.” King said as he threw the box back inside.

“Boo-boo buddies, huh? That’s a nice name!” Sora smiled.

“Oh my gosh, I love you so much!” Luz said as she laid on her side and stared at King with wide eyes. She got back up when she saw Eda in the middle of the boiling rain and remembered she was doing magic. “A boiling rainstorm on the Boiling Isles. The weather here is so fun.”

“Yeah, we don’t have weather here.” Eda rejected. “We have plagues, gorenadoes, shale hail, painbows…” She began listing.

“It’s like a rainbow, but looking at it turns you inside-out!” King said happily. Luz tightened her hood when she heard that.

“Geez, this really is one of the strangest worlds we’ve ever been to…” Sora said in horror.

“So, until the boiling rain stops, no one is allowed outside tonight.” Eda stated.

“And if the rain doesn’t get you, the Snaggleback will.” King said as he pulled out a book about demons from inside his hat. “They wander around in the rain, feeding on boiled tourists.” He explained as he opened the book to a page that had a pink demon with a shell covered in spikes.

“Well, we should be safe with Eda’s barrier, right?” Goofy asked.

“Yeah, nothing can get through the barrier once it’s up, right?” Donald backed up.

“You can stop worrying so much about it. This force field spell should protect the house from boiling rains and your made-up demons.” Eda reassured them. “Though I’m not sure about your bizarre Heartless you always attract, but they’ve never gotten close to the house.”

“Huh, I wonder if the Heartless get hurt by the boiling rain…” Sora pondered.

“Hoot! Well, hurry it up with that force field. That rain is getting close to my precious stucco.” Hooty complained. The trio looked at him with annoyance for complaining about the “weather”.

“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” Eda said as she grabbed her staff. She stabbed the ball of light with the top of her staff and twirled it above her head. Then, she slammed it on the ground, causing the force field around her to grow bigger. The force field grew so big that it covered the entire house in a dome before it condensed around the shape of the house. A second force field appeared around Eda to continue protecting her from the boiling rain. She made her way back to the house, walking with pride. Luz and the trio looked at Eda with amazement over her power.

“Wow… Someday, I’d like to be as cool as Eda the Owl Lady…” Luz admitted as she took off her hood.

“Yeah, she’s incredibly powerful!” Sora agreed.

“It’s more than just her power. She’s magical, sassy, and surprisingly foxy for her age. All of that is what makes her so cool…” Luz fangirled a little. “Hey, why do they call you the Owl Lady, anyway?” She asked as Eda walked through the force field around the house.

“Cause I’m so wise.” Eda bragged as the barrier above her vanished.

“Cause she coughs up rat bones.” Hooty corrected. The trio looked at Eda in confusion.

“I think it’s ‘cause she gets distracted by shiny objects.” King said.

“What? No I don’t!” Eda tried to argue.

King reached into his hat and pulled out a pen that he borrowed from Luz for his demon lesson. He pressed a button on the pen and the diamond at the top lit up. Eda’s eyes widened greatly as she saw the glowing pen.

“It sparkles and shimmers. It shines and delights. I must have it for my nest…!” Eda said, almost in a trance. She dove towards King to try and grab it from him, but King pulled it away from her, causing Eda to crash on the ground.

“See? Told ya.” King bragged as he tossed the pen back to Luz, catching it.

“Hold on, you have a nest? I want a nest! Nest party!” Luz pleaded as she helped Eda off the ground.

“Nest? As in a bird nest? Wow, you’re really embracing being the Owl Lady.” Sora said.

“Gawrsh, sleeping in a bird’s nest doesn’t exactly sound comfortable.” Goofy said, worried.

“Wow, I’m standing right here, you know.” Donald pointed out.

“Ugh, that force field really took a lot out of me…” Eda said as she held her head.

“Uh-oh, moving a little slow? Age finally catching up to ya?” King mocked. Eda wasn’t amused and pulled on King’s hat, covering his face. Eda slowly made her way inside as King struggled to take his hat off.

“Hey, this is perfect! Since we’ll be stuck in the house tonight, Eda won’t have any excuse not to teach us a spell!” Luz said happily as she entered the house.

“Yeah, maybe we can start working on some sort of training for us to regain my strength!” Sora agreed as he entered as well.

“I’d love to learn some new spells and become an even more powerful magician!” Donald said enthusiastically as he entered as well.

“Well, I don’t really know any magic, so maybe I can learn some magic, even if it’s pretty simple!” Goofy said eagerly as he entered as well.

“But… don’t you guys want to finish our lesson? I was gonna let you scratch a demon’s tummy: me!” King desperately tried to persuade them.

“Oh, uh… sorry, King. But… magic.” Luz tried to create an excuse.

“You know how picky Eda can be. We spend most of our time doing her chores, then when we get back, she always says she’s too tired to teach us anything. This is the perfect time for us to finally learn some magic together.” Sora explained as the trio made their way to Eda with Luz. “Don’t worry King, you can continue teaching us about demons whenever you want.” King looked at them with anger, but also loneliness.

Eda walked behind a dresser that was covered in other clothes and snapped her finger, causing a burst of light around her. When she walked back out, she was in her pajamas and dropped her staff. She stretched and laid comfortably on the couch, resting. Luz and the trio looked at each other and nodded, making their way over to Eda. The trio stood in front of the couch while Luz stood at the arm of the couch, looming over Eda and startling her.

“Oh, Eda, have I told you how rad your fang looks tonight?” Luz tried to flatter her.

“Whatever it is, no.” Eda shot her down.

“Yeah, and your hair looks amazing tonight!” Donald continued to compliment her.

“I’m not teaching you magic tonight. I’m sleepy. I’m a sleepy little owl.” Eda sighed as she pulled a blanket on the top of the couch over her.

“Come on, Eda, we’ve been doing chores for a week now. Can’t we at least start making some sort of plan or schedule we can follow?” Sora suggested.

“No. Sleep.” Eda said annoyed as she pulled the blanket over her head. Luz and the trio looked at each other, worried.

“Maybe we should just leave her alone for now, fellas. That barrier must’ve made her more tired than we thought.” Goofy pointed out.

Luz was about to give up and walk away until she remembered her pen. She took it out of her pocket and began turning the light on and off. The trio were about to ask what she was doing, until Eda suddenly shot up.

“Sparkle thing!” Eda gasped as she saw Luz’s pen.

“Oh, you mean this?” Luz smirked as she gestured to the pen. The trio began to smile when they understood Luz’s plan.

Luz waved the pen in front of Eda, who threw the blanket off herself and jumped onto the arm of the couch. She watched the pen’s movement very closely and tried to grab it, but Luz pulled it away before she could grab it. Eda fell off the arm of the couch and landed on the ground. The trio couldn’t help but laugh at Eda lying on the floor.

“Teach me one spell, and I’ll give you your sparkle thing.” Luz bargained.

“I respect your cunning, but I also hate you for it.” Eda said, proud but angry. “Alright, fine! I’ll teach you four a spell, then I’m going back to sleep, got it?!” Luz and the trio eagerly nodded their heads. “I’m gonna remember this…” She muttered under her breath as she got off the ground. She picked up her staff and stood in the center of the room as Luz and the trio gathered around her.

“Let’s just get this over with…” Eda complained as she yawned. “If you want a witch’s staff like mine, don’t make me repeat myself. Witch’s staff have power embedded into them.”

“Gimme, please!” Luz begged as she beckoned for the staff. Eda stared at Luz unenthusiastically.

“… But before one is earned, every witch needs to know how to cast spells on their own.” Eda explained as she threw her staff back on the floor, making everyone wonder why she picked it up in the first place.

“That makes a lot of sense! They have their own powers, but they’re also an extension of your own power. It’s a special bond created between weapon and wielder that only grows over time.” Sora said as he summoned his Keyblade.

“Wow, you actually said something that made sense. And, I can’t believe I’m saying this… but Sora’s right.” Eda admitted, shocked. “Now, let’s start with something simple. Tonight, I’ll teach you how to create light.”

Eda drew a yellow circle in the air, staying for a bit. Then, a small white ball emitting light began forming in the center of the circle. As the ball of light grew bigger, the circle began to fade away until it was the size of the circle. When the circle vanished, the ball of light floated down in front of Luz before disappearing. Luz and the trio stared at the ball of light with amazement.

“Yawn! Who needs another boring spell lesson when you could be learning all the fun ways a demon could kill you?” King said, jealous.

“Be quiet, King. I need to focus.” Luz said, annoyed.

“Now, humans think magic is made out of thin air, but that’s stupid. Everything comes from something, and magic’s no exception. Let me ask you, kid: where do you think magic comes from?” Eda asked Luz.

“Um… from the heart?” Luz guessed as innocently as possible.

“Actually, you’re right!” Eda said, surprised. Luz and the trio’s face lit up with joy when they heard that.

“See, Eda? You kept acting like you never believed what we said about the heart, but—” Sora began to gloat, but was cut off.

“Not that crystal heart you’re always blabbing on about, you idiot! I mean the organ heart!” Eda shouted as Sora. She reached into her hair and pulled out a piece of paper of a heart with something attached to it. “It comes from a sac of magic bile attached to a witch’s heart. I don’t suppose you have one of these sacs, do you?” She got in Sora’s face.

“I, uh… don’t think so? I’ve never been able to cast magic with just my hands.” Sora admitted.

“Can I keep that?” Luz asked as she stared at the picture, both disgusted and intrigued.

“No.” Eda said bluntly, putting the picture back in her hair. “Now, everything depends on the spell circle. The bigger the circle, the more powerful the spell. The more powerful the spell, the more energy it takes out of the sac. That’s why I’m so tired tonight: that force field spell took a lot of energy out of me.” She explained as she drew an even bigger circle in the air, creating an even bigger ball of light in the sky.

“But how can I, little ol’ Luz, do spells if I don’t have one of those magic bile… sacs?” Luz asked nervously.

“Huh… you know, I’m not actually sure.” Eda confessed.

“Wait, what?!” Luz and the trio shouted.

“I mean, I know witches did magic differently in the past, but I never bothered to figure out how.” Eda laughed.

“Eda, you’re my teacher! How are you supposed to teach me if you don’t even know what it is you’re supposed to be teaching me?!”Luz shouted at her, angry.

“Don’t worry so much about it, I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Besides, you’ve got these three clowns with you, you’ll probably find whatever answer you need pretty quickly.” Eda reassured Luz as she patted her head. “Now… I’m gonna lie down.” She said as she stretched.

“Well, guess that’s all for today’s lesson. I was hoping for a little more…” Goofy said.

“That wasn’t a lesson at all! That was just a demonstration. Highly uneducational.” Donald grumbled.

“So much for creating a training schedule… At this rate, the only training I’m going to get is the random Heartless we find during our chores…” Sora said, disappointed.

“Wait, please! We need to see you do the circle thingy again. I’ll record it on my phone this time so we can study the video instead.” Luz begged as she pulled her phone out of her pocket. She started recording Eda, who was staring at them with hate. “Come on, Eda, please? One more spell won’t kill you.”

“Ugh! Fine… But this is the last time, got it?!” Eda shouted. Luz and the trio nodded their heads. “Now, you see, the… spell circle is really key because… because…” She struggled to draw a magic circle. The circle disappeared and Eda fell on the ground, passing out. Everyone stared at Eda with horror.

“Welp, looks like one more spell killed Eda.” King said jokingly. They ran over to Eda and turned her on her back.

“Oh my gosh… My obsession with spells knocked out Eda! I’m a monster…” Luz freaked out.

“King, will she be okay?!” Sora asked. King walked over and loomed over Eda.

“Bap!” King shouted as he slapped Eda’s face. No response. “Yep, she’s out cold. Bap!” He slapped her face again. Again, no response. Luz and the trio stared at King with anger. “Just making sure.” He defended himself.

“We should get help, right?!” Luz asked as she frantically ran towards the door. The trio followed her, but King stopped them all.

“Boiling rain, remember?!” King shouted, baffled how everyone forgot in the first place.

“No, let them try! It’ll be funny.” Hooty encouraged them. King slammed the door shut, unamused.

“But what if Eda’s badly hurt, or even dead?! We don’t have anything with us to try and help her, and I don’t think a Cure spell will heal this!” Sora argued.

“…Shiny thing… Big nest…” Eda mumbled before she began snoring. The trio ran over to her to make sure she was still okay.

“Remember when her head got cut off last week? That woman can survive anything.” King reminded them. “Besides, she’s just exhausted from casting too much magic. Give her time to rest and the magic sac will gain enough energy and she’ll wake back up.”

“Maybe it’d be best if she didn’t rest in the middle of the floor.” Donald pointed out.

“Well, let’s bring her to her nest and let her sleep there.” Goofy suggested.

“Yeah, let’s get her to her room.” Luz agreed.

She ran over to Eda and picked up one of her arms. Sora picked up the other arm, and Donald and Goofy picked up her legs. Together, they lifted Eda off the ground and started carrying her towards her room. When they got to the stairs, they stopped moving.

“Uh… King? Where’s Eda’s room?” Luz asked.

“You four are hopeless…” He sighed. “Fine, follow me.” He got in front of the group and led them to Eda’s room. Once they made it to her room, they gently placed her in a giant nest at the edge of the room.

“Gawrsh… Miss Eda really does sleep in a giant owl nest…” Goofy said in disbelief.

“But why would she choose to sleep in a nest? She could have an actual bed.” Donald pointed out.

“I’m sorry we pushed you so far, Miss Eda.” Luz apologized. “Please don’t hurt me when you wake up…”

“I have a feeling that she’ll get mad at me again when she wakes up…” Sora dreaded.

“Should I bap her again?” King eagerly asked.

“Just let her rest, you little goober. Come on, let’s just go downstairs.” Luz said. She walked out of the room, followed by the trio. King stayed behind and bapped Eda anyways before he followed them out of the room.

Everyone regrouped and waited for either the boiling rain to stop or for Eda to wake back up. King was going through his photos and books of demons and started drawing pictures and writing notes, Luz replayed the video of Eda performing the light spell over and over, and the trio helped arrange the room back to normal. Once the trio fixed the room, they grouped up with Luz to try and help her figure out the light spell.

“Making any progress, Luz?” Sora asked.

“No, nothing’s happening.” Luz said, frustrated as she drew another circle in the air, but nothing happened. “I mean, this is all she’s doing! Why you gotta be so cryptic, Owl Lady?!” She replayed the video again.

“Hey, you know what’s really cryptic? Let me tell you about the most spine-chilling demon: Smoochy-Pie the Sweetie Baby!” King said as he showed them a picture of a strange fish-like demon he drew. “He’s… he’s a lot more threatening than his name implies.”

“Why would he have such a misleading name?!” Donald shouted. His eyes suddenly widened. “Oh… so that’s how Eda felt about the Heartless and Nobodies…”

“Please King, not now! I just want to figure out this spell.” Luz insisted as she turned away from King.

“But how are we supposed to figure it out if we don’t have a magic sac in our body?” Goofy asked.

“I don’t know, okay?! But if we don’t figure it out soon, I’ll just be twirling my fingers around unmagically forever…” Luz said in despair.

“There has to be something we’re missing… Maybe we’ll have a better understanding if we try it with a staff first.” Sora suggested.

“Why do you want to learn magic so bad, anyway?!” King demanded, getting frustrated that they kept ignoring them.

“It’s because I was a nobody back home…” Luz confessed. “…But becoming a witch is my chance to finally be someone. Do you know what it’s like to have no one take you seriously?” She asked, tearing up from bad memories.

“I remember when no one took me seriously, not even with my friends on Destiny Island… But after I became a Keyblade Wielder, they started to take me seriously and not see me as just some upbeat kid.” Sora recalled. “You’re my friend, Luz, and I’ll help make sure you’re taken more seriously as well.” He reassured her as he placed his hand on her shoulder for comfort.

King looked at his drawing of demons and remembered all the times no one ever took him seriously. He sighed and looked at Luz. “Well… If I help you learn that spell, could we finish our lesson?” King asked.

“Of course you can, King! You can teach us about demons all week if you help us learn this spell!” Luz encouraged.

“Y-you really mean it?” King asked, surprised.

“You can teach us all about demons as you want. We promise, King.” Sora reassured him. King began to smile when he heard how much they care about him.

“Okay, so here’s what I’m thinking.” King began as he got a colored pencil and started drawing on a piece of paper. “Eda said that witches used to do magic differently, so there has to be some other way that you can do, right?”

“Do you know how witches used to do magic?” Donald asked.

“No, but I have a theory.” King stated as he turned his piece of paper to the group. “Every day, I notice Eda sneaking drinks of this special elixir, see? Then she always gets a boost of energy, see?” He explained as he pointed to his drawings.

“You mean Miss Eda drinks something else besides her apple blood?” Goofy asked.

“Yep, and I think that’s where she gets her powers. And I know where to get some.” King stated.

“Are you sure taking something from Eda without her knowing about it is a good idea?” Sora asked nervously.

“Sí.” King said happily. Sora looked at him in confusion, not knowing what he just said. “Luz said that means ‘yes’ back on Earth.” He explained.

“Oh, thank you so much!” Luz shouted as she picked up King and hugged him. “You’re my prince!”

“King! I’m King.” He said, annoyed.

“Right, sorry.” Luz said as she placed King back on the ground. King made his way back upstairs to grab whatever elixir he claimed Eda was using. While they were waiting, Luz and the trio talked about casting the light spell.

“Hey, Sora, I’ve seen you cast some crazy magic with your Keyblade. You can cast a simple ball of light, right?” Luz asked curiously.

“Yep, I can easily summon a ball of light.” Sora said as he summoned his Keyblade. He held it out in front of him and concentrated, and a small ball of light appeared at the end of the Keyblade. “Although, it is kind of stuck to the end… I can make glowing projectiles, though, but they’ll destroy everything they touch. I’ve never tried to create one the way Eda did.” He copied the circular motion that Eda did in the video, but nothing happened.

“What if you tried making the circle with your Keyblade? You did say that weapons and wielders have a special connection.” Luz pointed out.

“Well, I guess I can give it a try while we wait for King.” Sora admitted. He held out his Keyblade with the ball of light in front of him and began drawing a circle. Thanks to the ball of light, the outline of the circle stayed, but when the circle was complete nothing happened and it just stayed there. Everyone looked at the circle with confusion as to why nothing was happening. Sora walked up to the circle and touched it, but it exploded in a blast of light, knocking Sora on the ground and knocking his Keyblade out of his hand, landing on the ground next to Luz.

“Sora! Are you okay?!” Donald and Goofy ran over to pick him off the ground.

“Yeah, I’m okay…” Sora groaned as he took Donald and Goofy’s hands. “I must’ve cast some other spell by mistake, but we’re definitely missing something with the magic circles though…”

“We should just wait for King to come back with that elixir. Maybe that’ll help us with creating spell circles. Now that I think about it, that was actually a very dangerous idea with your powers.” Luz suggested. She noticed the Keyblade lying on the ground next to her. “Oh, here, you ended up dropping your weapon.” She picked up the Keyblade, but stopped to examine it. “Oh, wow… This is way lighter than I thought!” She swung it around a bit before walking over to Sora. “Here you go!” She held the Keyblade handle towards Sora.

“Of course it’s light— it is literally light. Thank you.” Sora said as he grabbed onto the handle of the Keyblade. When Sora and Luz’s hand met, a small glow of light appeared on their hands, but neither of them noticed. Sora took the Keyblade back and unsummoned it.

King came running down the stairs holding a golden potion. “What was that explosion?!” He said, concerned. “Is the Snaggleback here?!”

“No, Sora tried to draw a spell circle with his Keyblade and it ‘sploded.” Luz explained.

“Well, I got the elixir, so let’s go test it out in the kitchen!” King declared. Everyone followed King to the kitchen and gathered around the table.

“So, who’s gonna go first?” King asked as he placed the elixir on the table.

“You can go ahead, Luz. We already know some magic through our weapons, so you can drink it so you can learn magic of your own.” Sora explained. Donald and Goofy nodded their head in agreement.

“You really mean it?! Thank you so much!!” Luz said as she hugged the trio very tightly. The trio tried to hug her back, but couldn’t move their arms. Then Luz let them go and grabbed the elixir. “Wow… I can’t believe I’m about to learn magic. Real magic!” She took off the cork in the bottle and went to take a sip of the elixir, but a sudden lightning strike followed by loud thunder caused her to drop the elixir. Everyone tried to grab the elixir, but ended up missing, and it shattered on the ground. Everyone stared at the spilled elixir with horror.

“Golden elixir… gone! This is awful…” Luz sulked.

“Well… look on the bright, heh, side, Luz: we don’t need a light spell when we have tons of lamps.” King tried to cheer her up. Suddenly, all the lamps extinguished, leaving the room dark except for the window.

“Why did all the lights just go out?!” Donald freaked out.

“Calm down, Donald. Hooty controls the house lights. He probably just fell asleep.” King sighed.

“Hoot! Hoot!!” Hooty screamed in the distance. Everyone looked over at the entrance with concern.

“That doesn’t sound like Hooty’s sleeping! Something must’ve happened to him!” Goofy pointed out. Everyone ran back to the front room to try and aid Hooty, who continued to scream as they got closer.

Once they made it to the front room, they stopped and stared at the horrible spectacle. The front room was completely torn apart; furniture was destroyed, books and curtains were torn to shreds, and claw marks were all over the place. When they saw Hooty, he was knocked over with a large monster looming over him. The monster continued to claw at Hooty until it noticed the group staring at it. It growled at them with sharp teeth and glowing yellow eyes before it ran outside. Sora, Donald, and Goofy summoned their weapons and chased after the monster, while Luz and King ran over to check on Hooty. When the trio got outside, they couldn’t find the monster, but multiple Heartless appeared inside the barrier and closed in on the group. They were big blue bats with a hook for feet and the Heartless symbol on their chest.

“Hook Bats? Here?!” Donald shouted.

“How’d they get through the barrier?!” Goofy asked.

“Luz, King, keep Hooty safe. We’ll hold them off!” Sora reassured them as the Hoot Bats began attacking.

The Hook Bats began swinging their hooks, aiming at Hooty. Goofy jumped in front of Hooty and protected Hooty, knocking them back. Donald cast Thunder on the Hook Bats, which struck them very easily because of their metal hooks attracting the spell, knocking them on the ground. Once they were on the ground, Goofy and Sora smashed their weapons against them, easily defeating them. However, even more Hook Bats showed up from above the house. They scraped their hooks with the spikes at the edge of their wings, creating an awful noise and causing everyone to cover their ears. With everyone distracted, the Hook Bats got closer to the group and nearly attacked everyone. However, Sora took his Keyblade and interlocked it with one of the Hook Bat’s hooks and began swinging the Hook Bat around wildly, knocking them away. Donald regained focus and cast Magnet, drawing and trapping all the Hook Bats in one area. With them defenseless, Sora and Goofy charged in and defeated the Hook Bats. Thankfully, no more Hook Bats showed up, so the trio ran back to Luz, King, and Hooty, who was badly damaged and unconscious.

“Is Hooty going to be okay?” Luz asked, worried.

“He should be alright, but he won’t be helping us out anytime soon.” King said nervously.

“We should heal him right away!” Sora said as he raised his Keyblade.

“No, you shouldn’t. He’s not dead, and he’ll get back up soon. Trust me, he’s surprisingly resilient.” King insisted as he lowered Sora’s Keyblade.

“So now Heartless are here, but what was that monster? It escaped into the boiling rain when it saw us. What could survive that?!” Luz began to panic.

“Oh my gosh… the Snaggleback! It feeds during the rains! It must’ve stumbled across our house and seen us inside…” King said. They heard growling from above them, and when they looked up, they saw the monster break through a window above them.

“The Snaggleback just broke into the house!” Goofy pointed out.

“With Hooty knocked out, the house is defenseless against it!” Sora stated, scared.

“Looks like it’s up to us to defend the house, fellas!” Goofy said with confidence.

“Defend the house from that thing?! This is terrifying…” Luz said in fear. She looked over at King, who was smiling and bouncing up and down. “Why are you acting so happy? This is life-threatening!”

“Because this could be a lesson! This would be a great way for all of you to see a wild demon up close and personal!” King stated happily.

“You want to go toward those creepy sounds and sharp claws?! No way!” Luz shouted.

“What if Eda gets eaten? She’s upstairs and also defenseless because you four knocked her out!” King pointed out.

“We’re trapped in here with the Snaggleback; we can’t get away from it!” Donald said, afraid.

“Plus the Snaggleback is able to summon Heartless, making it even more dangerous!” Goofy pointed out.

“It’s up to us now, we have to stop the Snaggleback!” Sora said confidently.

“…Okay, let’s go protect Eda and beat that Snaggleback.” Luz gave in, still nervous.

Luz and King scavenged the damaged front room for anything they could use for protection. Luz put on some gloves, taped pillows to her body, put some bandaids underneath her eyes to look like war paint, and grabbed a hockey stick as a weapon. King taped some pillows to his body and took a stuffed bunny with him. The trio insisted that they would be fine without any protection, so Luz and King stopped trying to argue with them and just moved on. Together, they made their way upstairs to rescue Eda from any potential danger. As they made their way to Eda’s room, they saw many objects in the hall scattered with more scratch marks all over the place. Once they made it to Eda’s room, they saw the door was wide open. Nervous, they ran inside to check on Eda. Once they got inside, they saw how damaged the room was: claw marks were everywhere, everything was knocked over or broken, and the giant window was shattered. Worse of all, Eda wasn’t in the nest.

“Oh my gosh… Eda’s gone!” Luz shouted.

“She got snaggle-backed!” King gasped.

Luz tried to run over to the nest to find clues of what happened to Eda, but was stopped when Heartless flew in through the window. They were dark purple bats with large wings that covered most of their bodies with spikes at the end. Luz and King ran back to the entrance of the room, while the trio summoned their weapons and got in front.

“Now there are Flutterings?!” Donald and Goofy shouted, surprised.

“How powerful is the Snaggleback that it can summon Pureblood Heartless?!” Sora said, worried.

The Flutterings wrapped their wings around themselves and spread them out, launching dark arrows from the spikes on their wings. Sora slashed through the dark arrows, Goofy blocked the dark arrows with his shield, and Donald cast Reflect to protect Luz and King as well. Some of the Flutterings dived straight at the group while some of them landed on the ground and spun towards them with the spikes on their wings pointed out. Together, Goofy blocked the Flutterings charging and Sora sliced through them while they were stunned. Donald cast Blizzard on the ground and caused the spinning Flutterings to slip around and crash all over the place. With the rest of the Flutterings disoriented, the trio charged forward and took care of them with ease.

With the Heartless taken care of, Luz ran over to the nest to try and find clues about Eda.

“Eda?” Luz asked as she peered into the nest. She looked in horror as she pulled out a pillow from inside the nest. “No… more slash marks…”

“No! The Snaggleback got to Eda first!” Donald mourned.

“Or even worse: the Heartless got to Eda first…” Sora dreaded.

“Gawrsh, now what do we do with Eda missing?!” Goofy asked, worried.

“I don’t know… King, you’re the demon expert! We need your help!” Luz shouted.

“I’ll go get my demon book. That information should help us out.” King said as he ran out of the room.

“Eda can’t be gone, right? She has to be around here somewhere, right?! She has to still be alive! She has to, she… She… She’s gone… She’s gone and it’s all my fault…” Luz despaired as she fell on her knees. The trio surrounded her to try and cheer her back up.

“No Luz, Eda’s still alive. I can still feel her connection to my heart.” Sora said as he gestured to his chest. “It’s weak, but I can still feel her connection. She’s around here somewhere, I know it. Can you feel it too?”

Luz put her hand over her chest and concentrated. “I… I think I can? I don’t know, it’s very hard to tell the difference between my own… organ heart.” She admitted. She got off her knees. “I might not be able to tell, but I trust you. We should hurry and find Eda, before that connection disappears for good.” She said confidently.

“But what about King? Shouldn’t we wait for him to come back with information about the Snaggleback?” Donald pointed.

“Wait a second, why didn’t we go with King in the first place? He’s defenseless on his own!” Goofy realized.

“Shoot, you’re right! We should’ve gone with him!” Luz shouted as she ran towards the door. “We have to follow him before—” She was cut off when a big, red fist punched the edge of the door, scaring Luz and making her fall on the floor. The trio ran in front of the door to protect Luz from whatever nearly hit Luz. Out in the hall, there were purple Heartless with yellow wings on their head and red boxing gloves for hands, with the Heartless emblems on the center of their chests.

“Seriously? Now we have to deal with Aerial Knockers?!” Donald complained.

“The Snaggleback must be close if it’s calling so many Heartless towards us!” Goofy pointed out.

“What the— why are there so many bird-themed Heartless after us?!” Luz shouted, annoyed. “I thought they would be more twisted for a demon!”

“I don’t know, but we don’t have time to question that! Luz, get out of here, we’ll hold them off!” Sora ordered. Luz began to run away from the Heartless, which was accidentally the opposite direction King went to grab his books. Some of the Aerial Knockers continued to follow after Luz, while some of them stopped to fight the trio. Donald and Goofy stayed to fight the Aerial Knockers that stayed back while Sora chased after the ones going after Luz.

The Aerial Knockers fighting Donald and Goofy fired a flurry of punches at them. Goofy held up his shield Donald cast Reflect on Goofy’s shield, reinforcing his guard and allowing him to block all the punches. The Aerial Knockers then surrounded Donald and Goofy and pulled their fists back, growing in size and preparing to launch them at the duo. Donald then cast Fire on Goofy’s shield, setting it on fire. Goofy then stuck his arms to his side and began spinning in place very quickly, drawing the Aerial Knockers towards him and setting them on fire with his shield. With all the Aerial Knockers in one place, Goofy swung his shield in an upward motion, knocking them in the air. Then, Donald cast Gravity on all the Aerial Knockers, slamming them in the ground, defeating them. With the immediate threat taken care of, Donald and Goofy shared a high-five and went after Sora and Luz, thinking they ran in the same direction as King.

Meanwhile, Sora was still running after the Aerial Knockers that were chasing Luz, who lost a shoe during the chase. Sora threw his Keyblade at one of the Aerial Knockers, defeating it with ease. The Aerial Knockers finally stopped chasing after Luz when they were under attack and focused on fighting Sora, allowing Luz to run away from them. Sora summoned his Keyblade back and prepared for the Aerial Knockers to attack. One by one, the Aerial Knockers shot their arms out in a flurry of blows at Sora, but he blocked, dodged, and counterattacked their punches, taking them out with speed. Now that all the Aerial Knockers were defeated, Sora was torn between going back to aid Donald and Goofy or group up with Luz and King. Before he could decide, Donald and Goofy found him first.

“Looks like you two took care of your share of the Heartless.” Sora said happily.

“Glad you’re safe as well, Sora.” Donald said, irritated.

“Say, Sora, where did Luz go?” Goofy asked as he looked around the hall.

“She ran ahead to find King, but don’t worry, I took care of all the Heartless chasing after her.” Sora explained.

“Well, we better make sure she’s still safe and finally find King.” Donald suggested. The trio began to walk away, but stopped when they heard a lot of crashing and screaming behind them. They stopped to see what was causing it.

“Are there more Heartless coming after us?” Goofy asked, fearful. The crashing and screaming got closer very quickly, until King came around the corner holding a shoe.

“King!” The trio shouted, surprised but relieved.

“Run away!!” King cried out as he caught up to them.

Suddenly, the monster from earlier came running through the hallway, closely behind King. The trio stared at the monster in fear and ran away with King to get both him and themselves safe. They ran around a corner and came across an open door, where a hand suddenly reached out, grabbed King, and pulled him in the room. Concerned for King’s safety, they ran into the room and closed the door to rescue King and to hide from the monster. When they looked to see what grabbed King, they saw it was Luz. They were going to say something, but the shadow of the monster loomed over the door. Once the monster walked away, they began talking with each other again.

“Luz! You’re safe!” King and the trio said in relief.

“I’m so glad you’re safe, King! Good thing you three managed to find him!” Luz thanked the trio.

“Well, we didn’t exactly find him, more like he found us while getting chased.” Sora admitted with a nervous smile.

“I told you I would be back, so where did you four go?!” King said, annoyed.

“Well, you were gone to get your book, then more Heartless showed up, and they started chasing us and I found cover in this room. I also tripped and lost my shoe.” Luz explained. She noticed King holding a shoe close to his body. “Oh, hey, you found my shoe!” She put King back on the ground, took her shoe back, and began to put it back on.

“More of those things?! How many of those things can appear?! What—” King started ranting, but stopped when he saw a piece of paper on her foot. “Hey, what’s that?” He took off the piece of paper.

“I’m not sure, I must’ve stepped on it when I was running from those Heartless.” Luz said as she put her shoe back on. “So what is it?”

“‘Keeps the curse at bay.’” King read. His eyes widened as he pulled out another piece of paper, connecting the two together and forming a tag. “‘An elixir a day, keeps the curse at bay!’” King shouted as he read the full tag.

“Wait, curse?! What do you mean?” Luz and the trio shouted, shocked.

“I was wrong the whole time. That’s no Snaggleback, that monster is—” King began to explain, but was cut off by banging at the door.

Suddenly, a claw burst through the door before the entire door was destroyed by the monster crashing through it. Thanks to the brief light from outside, they could see and identify the monster. The monster was a giant owl with gray and white feathers. The monster had a black gem on its chest and black eyes. The monster’s face looked like Eda’s, and everyone connected the dots.

“Eda’s cursed?!” Everyone shouted in horror. Cursed Eda began to lurk towards the group and raised her claw, ready to slash them. Sora quickly ran up and blocked her claws with his Keyblade, knocking him back.

“C’mon, Eda, it’s us! You’ve been swallowed by a powerful darkness, but you have to remember who we are!” Sora tried to reason with Eda, but she just growled back at him. “I don’t know what happened to you, but if you can’t regain your grasp of the light, then I’ll have to try and suppress the darkness within you!” Sora shouted.

Sora twirled his Keyblade in front of him and began to rise in the air. He pointed his Keyblade at Eda and a beam of light shot out of it, striking her in her gem. Eda began to howl out in pain as the beam of light continued to strike her. Sora concentrated as he kept the beam connected and tried to bring Eda back to normal. Suddenly, Eda gave a very humanoid cry in pain, and everyone felt a pain in their chest, causing everyone to fall on the ground and grab their chest in pain, including Sora. With the beam of light gone, Eda fell to the ground in pain.

“No… Eda…” Sora cried out, devastated. He tried to get back up and reach for Eda, but she got back up, angrier than ever.

Eda tried to bite Sora, but he quickly grabbed his Keyblade and stuck it in her mouth, stopping her from sinking her teeth into him. As Sora struggled to fend Eda off, she slashed him with her claw, cutting across his body and knocking him against the wall. He lied against the wall in immense pain, struggling to stand back up. Eda turned towards Luz, King, Donald, and Goofy, who were beginning to stand back up from the sudden pain in their chest, and prepared to slash at them next. Frightened, Luz dropped her phone, which ended up taking a picture of Eda. The bright light hurt Eda’s eyes, disorienting her and giving everyone a chance to run away. Luz grabbed King and her phone and bolted out of the room. Donald and Goofy got Sora back on his feet and put his arms over their shoulders for added stability.

They ran down the hall as fast as they could, but Eda regained focus and continued chasing them down the hallway. They couldn’t run as fast due to Sora’s injury, allowing Eda to catch back up with them quickly. Desperate to get away from Eda and remembering how Luz’s phone stopped her, Sora pulled out his phone and took a picture of Eda attempting to claw at Sora with him in the picture. The new photo ended up disorienting Eda again, stopping her chase for a while.

“Seriously, Sora?!” Everyone shouted at his insanity.

“Hey, it worked, didn’t it?!” Sora argued as they kept shuffling with the group.

They made their way back towards Eda’s room and slammed the door shut. They looked around for a place to hide, and saw a balcony protected by the force field with flowers on top of a short ledge. Everyone jumped over the ledge and hid behind it for cover from Eda. They waited until they thought they were safe, but that time never came. Eda barged through the doors and roared, scaring everyone back into cover. They held their breaths to hide from her as best they could. Eda began sniffing around to try and find where they were hiding, and got very close to finding them if it wasn’t for Luz. She picked up a potted plant that was on their side of the ledge and threw it over to the side. The noise successfully distracted Eda as she ran out of the room to try and find what made that noise. With the room cleared everyone stood back up, except for Sora, who leaned up against the ledge.

“Sora! Are you okay?!” Donald and Goofy asked frantically.

“I-I-I think I’ll be fine, at least for now…” Sora tried to lie, but didn’t convince everyone. “…I’m in a lot of pain right now, but if we end up casting Cure, we won’t have any magic to deal with Eda.”

“I still don’t understand, what happened to her in the first place?!” Luz said, still afraid.

“Don’t you see? The elixir I gave you doesn’t give Eda powers, it prevents her from turning into that thing! She’s turned into a nightmare, and it’s all my fault…” King explained with sorrow. “I’m so sorry everyone, I-I just wanted you guys to be into demons like you’re into magic. I don’t have many friends, and no one ever pays that much attention to me. I thought maybe if I taught you all about demons, someone would finally care about creatures like me…” He sulked. Luz and the trio looked at each other with guilt.

“We’re really sorry King, we really do care about you and what you have to teach us…” Goofy apologized.

“We never meant to ignore you or make you feel useless…” Donald regretted.

“We still see you as our friend, and we hope you think the same as well…” Sora tried to comfort him.

“Well… let’s finish the lesson then.” Luz encouraged King as she offered her pen to him. “Eda turned into some sort of strange demon, and we have to save her. We need your help to do this.”

“You guys really mean it?” King asked.

“Of course we do. It’s up to us to save Eda, and we need your help to save her.” Luz encouraged.

“The good news is that Eda hasn’t been turned into a Heartless or a Nobody, but the bad news is this curse is much worse than I ever thought…” Sora said faintly.

“What happened to Eda if she didn’t become one of those monsters?” Luz asked, scared of the truth.

“I don’t know how, but her heart’s been corrupted by darkness. She still has light in her heart, but it keeps growing fainter…” Sora said in despair.

“Well, can’t you try and separate it? That should put her back to normal.” King pointed out.

“I tried, but it’s like that darkness is tied to her heart. If I separated it, it would split her heart in two. She would almost certainly die from it…” Sora said, heartbroken when thinking about Ventus and Vanitas.

“Was that the pain we felt in our chest: her heart?” Luz asked as she grabbed her chest, still in pain.

“Yes, that was the connection we have with Eda’s heart. It’s not a powerful connection, but it cried out in great pain when I tried to separate the darkness in her heart. I’m sorry, but there’s almost nothing I can to help Eda like this…” Sora apologized.

“So, it really is up to me and my knowledge of demons to help save Eda…” King said, frightened.

“We know you can do this, King. Besides, who knows more about demons than the teacher in the world?” Luz asked happily. King took the pen and looked at the group with joy. He hugged everyone one at a time.

“Thanks everyone, I needed to hear that.” King admitted. He took some leaves off of one of the plants and began drawing on them. “Alright, let’s see… She was bigger, covered in feathers, and had giant black eyes. Demons with black eyes are usually sensitive to light.” King listed. “Wait, light! Luz, use your phone to do that flashing thing again!”

“I can’t, my camera’s all busted…” Luz said sadly as she pulled out her phone, the screen now cracked.

“Okay then… Sora, what about using your phone in a way that’s not stupid?” King asked.

“Well, we could use it, but Eda recovered quickly both times. I don’t think this small light will be enough to stop her or turn her back to normal…” Sora said quietly.

At this point, King was stumped on what to do. “Then… that about that light spell? That should be powerful enough.” King suggested.

“You saw me, I can’t draw circles in the air. I’m not like Eda…” Luz sulked as she replayed the video on her phone.

“Okay then…! Sora, you’re always droning on about the power of light. Can you use it on Eda?” King asked, starting to get frustrated.

“I could, but with how hurt I am now, I don’t even know if I can fend her off. Going against her alone is a bad idea, but there isn’t much you guys can do to help me…” Sora admitted.

“Well, there’s gotta be something we can do! Using light is the best shot we have at saving Eda, but we need to come up with some sort of plan.” King said.

“There’s a pattern in the spell circle!” Luz gasped.

“Wait, where?!” Everyone shouted as they grouped up around Luz and her phone. Luz grabbed one of the leaves and put it over the phone.

“It looks like this.” Luz said as she copied the pattern onto the leaf. Once she finished drawing the pattern, she tapped on it. Suddenly, the leaf and the pattern began to glow. The leaf folded in on itself and formed a small ball of light. Everyone stared at the small ball of light in amazement. “It’s beautiful…” Luz said as she gently lifted up the light ball. “Oh my gosh… I just did magic… I just did magic! I just did magic!!” She celebrated. The trio celebrated with her, and even though King was happy for her, he had to be the voice of reason.

“Keep it down everyone! Look, as happy as I am for you, we’re not going to stop Eda with something that small.” King admitted. Eda let out a screech in the distance, scaring everyone to hide and talk quietly again. “What do we do now?” He asked, trying to stay positive.

“Well, now we have two sources of light. I’m sure we can create a good plan with that.” Sora pointed out.

“Actually, we have a lot more sources of light than just two now that we know that we can create more light through the symbols.” Luz said confidently.

“But how do we pin Eda down? She could flee or even hunt us down.” Donald said, worried.

“Yeah, Eda knows the house better than any of us. What if she just runs away from us?” Goofy backed him up.

Luz sat in silence for a moment before her face lit up deviously. “I think I know how to get Eda back.” Luz revealed. “So, the hallway to my room has three walls. Donald, Goofy, and I will each draw a large pattern of the light on each wall. King will lure Eda towards the patterns. We’ll put books and papers on the floor, causing her to slip. Once she arrives, we finish the patterns and create balls of light. Sora will cover the back and create another pattern with his Keyblade. She’ll have nowhere to go, and we’ll get her back!” Luz explained.

“That’s a brilliant plan, Luz!” Donald and Goofy encouraged her.

“Create the pattern with my Keyblade… Okay, I think I can do that.” Sora agreed as he looked at his Keyblade with determination.

“Are we ready to save Eda, boo-boo buddies?” Luz asked as she put her fist out to the group.

“I’m kind of over that nickname, but okay!” King said as he fist-bumped Luz. The trio fist-bumped Luz as well. They got out behind the balcony and began moving to complete their plan to rescue Eda.

Together, they gathered a ladder, a curtain, something to draw with, and some books for their trap. Sora and King scattered the books and papers along the floor, while Donald, Goofy, and Luz took a turn drawing a large pattern on all three walls. With the drawings complete, Donald, Goofy, and Luz stood at the top of the ladder with the curtain, ready to throw it over Eda and further distract her. Now that the trap was set, King took the pen and went looking for Eda. While they waited, Sora leaned against the corner of the wall, still holding onto his wound.

“Are you going to be okay, Sora?” Luz asked, worried.

“Don’t worry about me, let’s just focus on saving Eda. We can worry about me once Eda’s safe.” Sora reassured her, giving a faint smile. Luz smiled back, but it vanished when they heard slamming coming from the hallway.

Just as planned, King was being chased by Eda. Once King got close to the other hallway, Sora grabbed onto him and ducked around the corner. Eda slipped on the books and well on the floor right in front of the ladder. Donald and Goofy jumped off the ladder, holding onto the curtain and covering Eda with it. As Eda struggled to get the curtain off, everyone got into position to activate their ball of light.

“Sorry Eda, but this is for your own good!” Everyone shouted. Donald, Goofy, and Luz slammed their hand against the pattern, creating large bursts of light. Sora twirled his Keyblade in front of him, creating another circle. He quickly slashed across the circle, recreating the design. Sora slammed his hand against it, causing the glove it touched to disappear, but the circle activated and created a massive ball of light. Eda screeched as the light enveloped everything. Once the light faded away, Eda was lying on the ground, unresponsive.

“Is… Is she okay?” Luz asked as she got off the ladder.

King slowly walked up to Eda’s face. “Bap.” King said as he lightly slapped Eda’s face, flinching immediately after he did it. No response. “Bap!” King said as he slapped her again. “Oh yeah, she’s out cold.”

“Sora, is Eda… still Eda?” Luz asked, confused on what to say.

Sora slowly made his way over to Eda. He laid his hand on Eda’s chest and concentrated. He looked at the trio with relief. “It’s okay, she’s still whole!”

“We did it! We saved Eda!” Luz and the trio celebrated.

“Not yet, guys! If she doesn’t take one of those elixirs, she’ll stay like this.” King reminded them. “We need to look around and find another one before she wakes back up.”

“Well, why don’t we try looking around her room? There should be more in there.” Goofy suggested.

“Yeah, we’ve never seen Eda drink an elixir, so she must have them stored there.” Donald pointed out.

“Let’s go and look there. Plus, it would be best if we let Eda rest in her nest.” Luz agreed. Everyone helped drag Eda into her room and placed her in her nest. They went searching around the room, trying to find a spare elixir.

“I’ve got one!” King shouted as he popped out of the closet holding another elixir. He placed it next to Eda’s nest.

“Is it safe for Eda to drink it all at once?” Sora asked.

“I’m not too sure… Maybe it’s best she doesn’t.” King admitted.

“We can get some straws for her to drink out of while she rests.” Luz suggested.

Everyone agreed, so they went to the kitchen to gather some straws. Luz picked up some pieces of paper from their trap so she could continue drawing the patterns. They connected the straws together and placed them in the elixir and Eda’s mouth. Eda slowly started to drink the elixir, slowly changing her body back to normal. She shrank in size, her claws back into arms and legs, and her feathers turned back into her skin. They sighed in relief as Eda changed back.

“We did it, we finally saved Eda.” Sora said happily.

“I mean, it was sort of our fault in the first place, but yeah, she’s safe.” King admitted.

“I still can’t believe I actually did magic, and I used it to save Eda!” Luz gleamed with pride.

“Yeah, that was really impressive Luz!” Goofy agreed.

“We’re really proud of you, Luz!” Donald complimented.

“So, you wanna keep doing magic while we wait for Eda to wake back up?” Luz offered.

“Of course we do!” The trio said.

“Alright, sure, I’ll try some as well.” King admitted. They gathered in a corner of the room and took turns drawing the light pattern on the pieces of paper. The room quickly filled with balls of light, greatly illuminating the room.

They created light for a while, until Eda suddenly shot up from her nest. Everyone eagerly looked at Eda, but it faded quickly when they saw she wasn’t completely normal. Eda noticed it too when she felt some feathers still in her hair. She quickly drank the rest of the elixir, removing the rest of her feathers, turning her eye back to normal, and her gem turned from black to orange. Once she was back to normal, everyone gathered around her.

“Eda! You’re back to normal!” They exclaimed.

“‘Back to normal’? What happened?” Eda asked, dazed. “Ugh, I have the worst headache… And my mouth tastes like roadkill…” She began to gag. Everyone looked away as Eda threw up. When everyone looked back, they saw a strange purple creature lying on the floor.

“I’m just gonna… lie here for a minute…” The monster gasped. Everyone but King looked at it with confusion.

“Uh, King, what’s that?” Sora asked.

“Oh that’s the Snaggleback. Eda ate him earlier.” King explained nonchalantly.

“Wait, the Snaggleback actually showed up?” Luz asked, astonished. “So, it’s not going to attack us, is it?”

“Nah, we’re cool now. Nothing to worry about.” King said happily.

“Oh, I was looking for this earlier.” Eda said as she picked up the empty elixir.

“Actually, we found an extra one in your closet.” King admitted.

“Extra? King, you stole my elixir?! I ought to break every bone in and on your body!” Eda shouted, furious.

“It wasn’t all his fault, Eda! If we didn’t push you so hard to teach us magic, you would still be fine.” Sora defended him.

“Oh, don’t worry, your bones are next!” Eda shot at Luz and the trio.

“I know you’re mad at us, but I want to show you something.” Luz said. She drew the pattern on a piece of paper and turned it into another ball of light. Eda was shocked as she watched the ball of light rise, but was completely amazed when she saw how many balls of light were in the room.

“Wow… how are you doing that?” Eda asked, dumbfounded.

“It turns out that there’s a pattern in that circle you drew. If we copy that pattern on something physical, like a piece of paper, it’ll turn that object into a ball of light.” Luz explained as Sora silently lamented the loss of his glove. “I’m not sure how it all works, but maybe this is what you meant when you said witches did magic differently in the past.”

“I had no idea…” Eda admitted.

“So, we, uh, kind of messed a bunch of things up today. We just wanted to say sorry and make sure you were doing okay.” King apologized for the group.

“Yeah, you better be sorry. I’ve got a long list of disgusting chores with your names on them.” Eda said angrily. “But… it’s not entirely your fault either. Look, I haven’t been completely honest with you guys.” She said sincerely. “When I was younger, I was cursed. I don’t know exactly how it happened. All I know is that if I don’t take my elixir, well… that’s why people call me the Owl Lady. No one likes having a curse, but if you take the right steps, it’s manageable.” She confessed.

“Are you going to be okay, Eda? A powerful darkness took control of you when you were under your curse. There has to be something we can do to help you…” Sora said in despair.

“There’s nothing for you guys to worry about. I have it all under control, and as long as no one steals my elixir, I’ll be fine.” Eda dismissed them, trying to change the topic. “But hey, look at you: a human doing magic. I’m proud of you, kid.” She gave a warm smile to Luz.

“Well, I had some encouragement from a great teacher.” Luz gestured to King. Everyone smiled, until they heard a strange voice from downstairs.

“Hey, hey! Is anyone there? Hello? Hoot? I’m on the floor. It’s cold!” Hooty complained.

“Right, Hooty! We better go help him!” Sora remembered. King groaned as he left the room.

“Come on, you goopy fella. We’ll set you free now.” Luz said as she began to walk out of the room with the Snaggleback. 

“Want to help us out?” Sora offered his hand to Eda. She looked at his hand in silence, then gave a faint smile and got up on her own.

Donald and Goofy ran ahead of them, leaving Sora and Eda to move slowly towards Hooty, Sora because of his claw wounds and Eda still recovering from her curse. Once they made it to Hooty, Luz, King, Donald, and Goofy were trying to pick him off the ground. Sora and Eda helped them out, and Hooty was hinged onto the wall once again. Luz put some Band-Aids on Hooty’s claw marks, not really helping him, but it was the thought that mattered.

“Welcome to the boo-boo buddy club, Hooty!” Luz declared.

“Finally, I get to be a part of something!” Hooty said blissfully.

“Do you want some more Band-Aids, Sora?” Luz offered.

“Thanks, but I don’t think it’ll be enough for this injury. I’d rather just use a Cure spell.” Sora admitted. “But hey, we’re still boo-boo buddies.” He reassured her. Sora raised his Keyblade into the air and cast Cure, healing his claw wound.

“…Sorry for doing that to you.” Eda apologized.

“Don’t sweat it, everything’s fine. I don’t blame you at all.” Sora reassured her.

“Look, fellas, the boiling rain is stopping!” Goofy shouted from outside. Everyone walked outside to see for themselves, and sure enough, the boiling rain was no longer hitting the force field.

“Hey Eda, can you drop the force field now?” Donald asked.

“Yeah, it’s time for this force field to go. Stupid boiling rain, causing today’s trouble…” Eda mumbled under her breath. She walked up to the force field and placed her hand on it. She then tore at it, causing the entire force field to pop and disappear. “Well, I’ve had enough for today…” Eda yawned.

“Yeah, I’m beat as well…” Luz agreed.

“It’s been a long day for everyone.” Sora admitted. “We should all get some rest. We’re gonna head back to the— THE GUMMISHIP! IT WASN’T PROTECTED!!” He shouted suddenly. The trio began to freak out and ran into the woods. Worried about their ship, Luz, King, and Eda decided to follow them into the woods.

After following the trio for a few minutes, they caught up with the trio staring at the Gummiship in horror. The Gummiship was completely ruined: the wings were chewed through, the rockets were leaking fuel, various pieces of the ship were broken off and lying scattered across the ground, and the dome at the top was gone with the interior severely damaged. Some unlucky pieces even had Eda-shaped teeth marks in them.

“Wow… that’s your ship?!” Luz shouted in amazement.

“Well, it’s not much of a sight to behold now.” King said, unimpressed.

“I didn’t think you were lying about coming here on some sort of ship, but this wasn’t what I was expecting.” Eda admitted.

“This is really bad…” Sora said as he ran inside the Gummiship.

“So, how exactly is this bad?” King asked.

“Well, not only do we no longer have a place to stay for the night, but we can’t leave the Boiling Isles. We’re stuck here now…” Goofy explained, defeated.

“Hey, at least you’re stuck with us, right?” Luz asked, trying to cheer them up. Donald and Goofy smiled, but it faded quickly. “Is there any way you can fix your ship?”

“No, we don’t have any spare Gummiparts, and we don’t have any means of gaining any new parts right now. We’re in big trouble…” Donald said, despaired.

Sora ran back out of the Gummiship, carrying some synthesis materials, spare clothes, and their banned posters in his hands. “This is all I could gather that was salvageable. What’re we supposed to do now?”

Eda looked at them with sadness, then sighed. “Alright, fine… you three can stay at the Owl House.” Eda offered.

“You really mean it?!” The trio asked, their faces gleaming with hope.

“Don’t get the wrong idea, it’s just because I pity you three that you can stay there.” Eda said defensively, but they suspected that she was lying. The trio ran up to her and hugged her, irritating her. “Alright, enough with the parallel arms! I’m already starting to regret this…” She signed and began walking back home.

The group made their way back to the Owl House and called it a day. Luz, King, and Eda made their way upstairs to fall asleep, leaving the trio in the main room. They put away the clothes, organized their synthesis materials and were left with the banned posters. They noticed that Luz’s poster was next to Eda’s massive wanted poster, so the trio decided to add their posters to the collection. They sat on the couch the same way they did the first night and fell asleep very quickly. However, Sora was still very worried about Eda’s curse and the darkness that lurks deep within her, determined to find some way to help remove her curse and the darkness linked with it once and for all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: I hope you enjoyed another chapter of this story! This was once again a very lengthy chapter, which was not intentional at all. However, the next two chapters will be on the shorter side as it will split the next episode in half. I have started a very small event in this chapter that will evolve later on, which will have a huge impact on later chapters. As for the Gummiphone bit, it started as a joke at the beginning when talking about Luz’s phone, but then I realized that I ended up writing myself into a corner and had to bring it up again when Eda was cursed. I really hope that it was funny and not annoying, and I hope those that played Kingdom Hearts 3 found it relatable, because I have done the exact same thing in my playthrough. As usual, there were a bunch of references to Kingdom Hearts games, so if anyone is curious or doesn’t understand a reference, I would be happy to explain it. There will also be some explanations in the next chapter about some events that happened in this chapter, so I really hope there weren’t parts that were confusing in this chapter. Thank you all for the continued support and I look forward to seeing you all in the next chapter!
> 
> P.S. I have a Tumblr account with a funny picture of Sora posing right before he got hit.  
> https://rogrtheshield.tumblr.com/post/631639950296858624/this-is-a-picture-i-took-during-the-data-sa%C3%AFx


	6. Magic Galore

Days have passed since the truth of Eda’s curse was revealed and the destruction of the Gummiship. Luz, King, and the trio had endured the brutal and disgusting chores that Eda threatened with for inadvertently causing Eda to transform into the Owl Beast. Thankfully, since that incident, Eda has not transformed again. King has been teaching Luz and the trio about various demons they can encounter on the Boiling Isles, and they took as many notes as they could. Luz has been spending most of her freetime messing around with the pattern to create the ball of light, which she has decided to call a glyph. The trio have been resting on the couch ever since they officially moved into the Owl House.

One day, while the trio was still asleep, Luz, King, and Eda walked into the room. Eda whacked Sora on the head with her staff, waking him up. He shot up in pain, waking up Donald and Goofy. Luz, King and Eda laughed, though King and Eda were more maniacal about it.

“Ow! Wha… what was that for?!” Sora shouted as he rubbed his head.

“Hurry up, you three, we’ve got work to do today.” Eda said.

“But you said we didn’t have any work to do today!” Donald shouted, enraged.

“Yeah, because I told you we were setting up shop today.” Eda reminded them, rolling her eyes.

“Gawrsh, is it time to set up shop already?” Goofy said, rubbing his eyes and still waking up.

“Yes! Do you three have no concept of time?!” Eda said, baffled.

“I guess time has been a little difficult to understand since we travel to different worlds, and the time is different in every world.” Sora explained as he got off the couch.

“Seriously, it’s like all you do is sleep all the time, and I should know because I take a ton of naps.” King said. “I swear, I hear you three snoring all the time…”

The trio got off the couch, stretched, and walked towards the door.

“Hope we didn’t keep you three waiting for too long.” Sora apologized as he fixed his hair, making it spiky again. “Well, let’s get going then.”

Luz, King, and Eda looked at them in confusion. “Wait, already? You three literally just woke up.” Luz asked.

“Yeah, and what about it?” Donald asked back.

“I mean, aren’t you going to eat anything? Aren’t you hungry at all?” Luz asked, slightly worried.

“Naw, we’re okay. We don’t eat much to begin with.” Goofy dismissed her.

“That again? We’ve hardly seen you three eat since you moved in here!” King protested.

“Not only have we never seen you three eat, we’ve never seen you change your clothes into anything else!” Eda pointed out. “And I’m not talking about that weird cloth-changing thing where you go from squares to stripes. I mean you literally haven’t put on any other clothes, especially when you sleep. You’re just gonna go to work in your pajamas which are the same clothes you wear for every other circumstance?”

“Come on, Eda, it’s not like you haven’t set up shop in your pajamas before.” King rolled his eyes.

“I’ve never really thought about that before… Maybe we should get some other clothes to wear.” Sora confessed.

“Hang on, it’s more than just eating and your clothes. You three haven’t showered or brushed your teeth once since you got here!” Luz pointed out, concerned for them.

“What exactly is the point of brushing your teeth? I thought they didn’t get tangled up.” Goofy confessed.

“I wash myself all the time in bodies of water.” Donald defended. “Whenever these two get dirty, we just cast Water on them.”

“You mean you don’t use soap at all?!” Luz asked, disgusted.

“How do your clothes dry so quickly?!” Eda asked, intrigued. “They’ve gotta be doing some kinda spell to stay so dry…” She mumbled under her breath.

“How are you three still functioning?!” King shouted, completely baffled.

The trio glanced at each other, unsure on how to answer. “I… I mean it might be because we function differently since we’re from different worlds.” Sora guessed.

“Whatever… let’s just hurry up and set up shop already.” Eda said, giving up. “I swear, you three just create more questions than you give answers…” She rubbed her head in pain and left the house. Luz, King, and the trio followed her as she tossed her staff and it began to fly. Luz, King, and Eda sat on top of the staff, and the trio linked together and hung off the staff from the bottom.

“By the way, make sure you don’t drop these.” Eda remembered as she snapped her fingers. Multiple bags came flying through the door, nearly hitting everyone. King caught a small bag, Luz grabbed a larger bag, and Goofy was smacked with a giant bag.

“What’re in these?” Luz asked, shaking it and peeking inside.

“The merchandise, of course.” Eda said bluntly.

“Can’t you just tie them onto the staff like you normally do?” King complained.

“I would if there weren't so many people on here.” Eda said, glaring at the trio.

“How is that our problem?!” Donald argued.

“We’re sorry about creating an inconvenience, but we don’t have a means of transport like you.” Goofy apologized.

“Why is our bag so much heavier?” Sora complained as he struggled to keep his grip on Donald and Goofy.

“Consider it your chore for keeping us waiting and making my job more difficult.” Eda remarked. “Alright, hang on tight! And if you drop anything, I’m dropping you!” She threatened. Together, everyone flew into the sky and made their way towards Bonesborough to set up shop.

They flew over Bonesborough, looking for a good place to set up shop, though Eda already had a place in mind. They eventually came across an empty street, where Eda decided to land. Everyone got off the staff and dropped their bags on the ground. The trio held their arms in pain after carrying the giant bag for so long.

“Here we are: the usual spot!” Eda declared as she gestured to the empty street.

“‘Usual spot?’ We’ve never seen you set up shop here before.” Sora pointed out as his arms dangled uselessly by his sides.

“I’ve got a buncha usual spots that change all the time, mostly to avoid the law, but also to maximize profits.” Eda explained. “It may look abandoned now, but that’s what happens when you arrive early and get the best seat possible. Just you wait, business will be booming in no time!”

“I hate having to attend your shop. I don’t get any time to take a nap…” King sulked.

“Well, none of you are paying rent, so this is just another chore for all of you.” Eda tried to be optimistic, but ended up being insulting. “Now come on, let’s hurry and set up shop.”

“Uh, what exactly are we supposed to set up?” Luz asked as she rummaged through her bag.

“Ugh… do I have to do everything for you?” Eda groaned. She slammed her staff on the ground, causing the trio’s bag to float in the air. Many pieces of furniture came flying out of the air, which arranged and connected to create a table, the tent, shelfs, and the “HUMAN COLLECTIBLES” sign. Luz and the trio stared at the spectacle, Luz amazed and the trio frustrated.

“Wow, self-assembling furniture! That’s so handy!” Luz exclaimed.

“We carried all of that?!” The trio shouted in disbelief.

“Hey, you three were strong enough, so quit your complaining.” Eda dismissed them. “Now, hurry up and set up shop. Customers will be appearing soon.” She ordered.

Luz, King, and the trio groaned as they emptied their bags and began sorting the various human objects that Eda collected. Every once in a while, Luz would comment on what the objects actually were, and while the trio were fascinated about them, Eda pretended not to care so she could offer them mysteriously to customers.

Once they finished placing everything, Eda pulled out a duster from her hair and began dusting off the items, but King and the trio stood around the table waiting for something to happen. Sora even summoned his Keyblade and idly tossed it into the air out of sheer boredom. Luz noticed how bored they were and pulled out a book she snuck into one of the bags at the last minute.

“Want me to read a bit of my book to you? That should help pass the time.” Luz offered.

“Sure! I can’t wait to hear what kind of stories you have back on Earth.” Sora said eagerly as he unsummoned his Keyblade. Donald, Goofy, and King gathered around Luz to see the story for themselves.

“Wanna read my story with us, Eda?” Luz offered.

“No. Someone has to run the shop, and since none of you are actually helping, it’s up to me.” Eda scolded them.

“We already set everything up, what else is there for us to do?” Sora asked, confused.

“Forget it. Looks like I’m the only professional one here and have to do everything myself.” Eda rolled her eyes. “Just stop reading that story when we get busy, got it? Don’t want to drive away our customers.”

Luz began reading her story out loud, which was about the Good Witch Azura going on a journey to protect the land from evil. King and the trio listened intently to Luz, while Eda continued to clean off the merchandise, slowly losing her mind over the story. Luz read the story for a while, waiting for anything to happen, but not a single monster showed up the entire time.

“Emboldened by the dishonor Hecate had shown, Azura lifted her staff to the cotton-candy skies and shouted, ‘I challenge you to a Witch’s Duel!’” Luz read in an epic narrator voice. “And look! I drew a flip book.” She flipped the corner of the page, showing two little drawings of Azura and Hecate fighting.

“I’m not sure how believable this story really is…” Donald grumbled.

“Well, real or not, it’s a really fun story!” Goofy said.

“That’s a nice little drawing you did, Luz!” Sora complimented. “I’m not good at drawing, but I can tell when you put your heart into making something fun.”

“Oh please, I can draw better than that.” King kindly insulted. “You know, they once called me the King of Artists.”

“Wait, I thought you were the King of Demons. Are you just making these titles up now?” Luz doubted.

“I mean, your drawings for your demon lessons weren’t bad, but I’m not sure if they’re worthy of the title ‘King.’” Sora teased. “Maybe more like the Court Jester.”

“It doesn’t matter. What’s important is that my followers would leave me offerings in fear of me!” King tried to save himself.

“What followers? We haven’t seen anyone go to the Owl House to leave anything for you.” Donald doubted.

“W-well… They leave my offerings somewhere else because, uh… they’re too afraid to come so close to me in my natural habitat!” King argued. No one believed him though.

“Would you like us to give you some synthesis materials as an offering from us?” Goofy suggested airheadedly.

“No way! You three barely make any sense as it is! I don’t want to deal with whatever strange items that’ll probably make even less sense!” King quickly rejected.

“Well, I can offer you more of this tantalizing book.” Luz said, holding up her book.

“Ugh! Please stop reading that! It’s flowery language is an insult to witches and is driving away all of our serious customers!” Eda finally snapped.

“Um, Eda? What customers?” Luz gestured to the empty street. “We’ve been here for a while, and no one’s showed up, not even any other stands. What’s going on?”

“This is a bad omen. There must be something horrible happening today…” Eda said ominously. Suddenly, Willow and Gus came running down the street towards them.

“Luz, Sora, Donald, Goofy! Something amazing is happening today!” They cried out.

“Willow, Gus! It’s been a while!” Sora greeted them. “Are you finally done with detention?”

“Yep! Detention’s finally over! Though honestly, my dad being upset with me was the worst part about it…” Gus admitted.

“So what’s going on today?!” Luz asked eagerly.

“It’s the annual convention!” Willow announced as she held up a poster about Covenation. “Student witches get to see all the types of covens before they’re placed in one. There’s even a mysterious guest this year!”

“Wow, a job fair for witches! Eda, can we go?” Luz tried to guilt trip her.

“Yeah, this is a good time to learn about the Boiling Isles.” Sora agreed. “I mean, it’s not like we have any customers to sell to.”

“Absolutely not!” Eda shouted. Everyone looked at her with disappointment, but she wouldn’t be swayed. “I never joined a coven for a reason. Sure, it’s like a fun club for witches, but you’re also giving up your magical independence to be part of a crooked system!” She argued from a personal place. Willow and Gus looked at Eda with confusion, snapping her out of her rant. “But, you know, no judgement. In any case, I haven’t been to one of those since we were girls.”

“Wait, ‘we’?” Luz’s eyes lit up with wonder.

“Wha—The—I mean—” Eda stuttered, realizing her mistake.

“Who’s ‘we’? You have a mysterious past! Now we gotta go!” Luz insisted.

“I mean, we’ve been telling you a lot about our past, so it’s only fair that you tell us about some of yours.” Sora pointed out.

“Nope, forget it.” Eda dismissed them.

“Okay then, you leave us no choice. King?” Luz handed over her book to King, who began reading it out loud again. Eda’s eyes widened, realizing the torture they were willing to put her through.

“So flowery… So awful…” Eda groaned in agony. She reached into her hair and pulled out the suitcase, opening the portal back to Earth. She walked through without hesitation. The portal began to close, but Luz picked up King and threw him into the portal before it closed.

“Do you think we’re going a little too far?” Sora asked, concerned for Eda. Suddenly, the portal opened up again as Eda stormed out with King on her head.

“Stop it! Stop it!! I will literally do anything, just stop this!!” Eda begged.

“Then to the Covenation we go!” Luz insisted.

“Fine, whatever! Just no more of this atrocious story!” Eda demanded as she threw Eda off of her head. Luz caught King and took her book back. “I’m gonna remember this…” She sighed angrily as she picked up her staff. She slammed it on the ground, causing everything around the tent, including the tent itself, to raise in the air. They disassembled and got sorted back into the bags, which she just threw into the portal to pick back up later.

“Alright then, let’s go to the Covenation!” Luz shouted. Everyone but Eda cheered with her.

“So where exactly is the Covenation?” Sora asked as he pulled out his map.

“It’s actually not that far from here.” Gus reassured them.

“Come on, let’s hurry before the mysterious guest arrives!” Willow insisted. The group followed Willow and Gus as they made their way towards the Covenation.

“So how exactly did you two manage to find us?” Donald asked, curious.

“We saw you flying above us when we were making our way to the Covenation.” Willow explained.

“You guys are lucky we spotted you, otherwise you wouldn’t have made it.” Gus pointed out.

“Yeah, how lucky…” Eda said sarcastically.

“How have things at school been going? Is Amity still upset at us?” Goofy asked.

“Amity’s still annoyed with us because she apparently ended up getting in trouble for that weird Abomination thing she created.” Willow recalled.

“Well, I’m sure she’ll get over it eventually. Who knows, maybe we’ll even be friends!” Luz hoped, the eternal optimist she is. Willow and Gus shook their heads, doubtful.

“Oh yeah, I wanted to ask you about that Abomination thing!” Gus remembered. “You didn’t know what an Abomination was, but you seemed to know what that… other thing was.”

“Yeah, you said it was an Unversed and said it was like something called a Lump of Horror.” Luz recalled, also curious. “What’s an Unversed?”

“Oh great, another bizarre monster that we’re going to have to deal with from now on.” King sighed. “Alright then, what makes up an Unversed?”

“…Yes indeed, Sora: what is an Unversed?” Eda said in the most passive-aggressive tone possible. If looks could kill, Sora would’ve used his Kupo Coin.

“Oh boy… so, Unversed are beings that are created out of very powerful negative emotions. They don’t have much of a purpose like the Heartless or Nobodies, but since they’re created out of negative emotions of a person, they’ll listen to their commands. Actually, now that I think about it, we only know one other person that was able to create an Unversed, so that’s very worrying…” Sora explained.

“Beings created out of pure anger and hatred, bending to their leader’s will. I can actually get behind these monsters of yours!” King said happily.

“Such strong anger and jealousy Amity must’ve felt towards us to create something like that… I hope she was able to forgive us…” Luz worried.

“At this rate, I’m gonna create an Unversed.” Eda said as she rubbed her head.

“Wow, I’ve never heard of anything like that in the human world! I didn’t even think they were capable of creating anything like that!” Gus exclaimed. “What other creatures do they have in the human world?!” Luz, King, Eda, and the trio winced when he asked that question.

“Well, those monsters aren’t exactly from the human world.” Luz tried to explain.

“Yeah, they’ve been showing up a lot on the Boiling Isles as well.” King pointed out.

“Heck, the kid’s not even from the same world as Luz!” Eda said, resenting every word she spoke.

“Wait, you mean there’s another world where humans come from?!” Willow asked, amazed. “So then where are you from and how did you get to the Boiling Isles?!”

“Uh…” Sora hesitated before he kneeled down to Donald. “It’ll be fine if we explain everything to them as well, right?” He whispered.

“They are our friends that already know about other worlds, after all.” Goofy added in.

“Fine…” Donald conceded, still wishing to at least try and keep the World Order. “Just don’t tell them anything specific. Keep it vague.”

“Alright, we’ve got quite a lot to explain, and it probably won’t make much sense, but I hope you’re willing to put up with us.” Sora admitted. He turned towards Luz, King, and Eda. “Don’t worry, I’m only going to tell them what I’ve already told you three… At least for now.”

“I wouldn’t mind listening to your stories again!” Luz encouraged him.

“Can you at least tell them that darkness won?” King begged. Sora shook his head, and King pouted.

“Just try and keep the noise down, I don’t wanna deal with another headache from your ridiculous stories…” Eda sighed.

Thus, Sora, Donald and Goofy began explaining everything they told Luz, King, and Eda. They explained the Heartless, Nobodies, Destiny Island, the Keyblade, the Gummiphone, the Gummiship, worlds being connected, and the clash to forge the χ-Blade. Luz tried to explain some parts and make them sound more epic, King gave snarky comments, and Eda constantly expressed her frustration. Once they finished explaining, Willow and Gus stared at Sora with fascination.

“Wow… That’s so much to take in, but… Wow…!” Willow tried to speak.

“I never imagined humans were capable of so much! I can’t wait to tell everyone in the Human Appreciation Society about what you just said!” Gus squealed.

“Nonononono! Please don’t tell anyone what we just told you!!” Sora panicked.

“We have to maintain the World Order!” Donald quacked angrily.

“If ya want to tell other witches about humans, you should ask Luz! She’s the real human expert.” Goofy insisted.

“Yeah, although Sora is a human, he’s not exactly the same kind of human that I am.” Luz agreed. “If you want a more accurate explanation of humans and their everyday lives, you should ask me.”

“I’ll admit, you did talk a lot about using magic and fighting bizarre monsters.” Willow said.

“I guess it would be difficult for others to believe what you said…” Gus admitted.

“I’ve seen some of the things they talked about, and I still find it hard to believe!” King shouted.

“Oh, trust me, I wish I could go back to not believing a word this kid said…” Eda sighed. “You’ve cursed me with this knowledge I never wanted to know…”

“Wait, curse! That’s right! I’ve got some more questions for you!” Luz remembered.

“Forget it, Luz! I’m not explaining that!” Eda shouted.

“It’s okay, Eda, I’m not asking you to explain your curse. I actually have more questions for Sora about when you attacked us.” Luz admitted.

“Curse?! What curse?!” Willow and Gus asked, shocked.

“Eda’s known as the Owl Lady because she has a curse that transforms her into an owl monster.” King explained nonchalantly.

“King!!” Eda shouted as she glared at him with hatred. “Fine! Just hurry up and ask your questions! We better be almost there…”

“Okay, so… you said that the curse was some sort of darkness attached to her heart, and that the light in Eda’s heart was basically overpowered by the darkness of the curse. You tried to separate the darkness of the curse, but some sort of pain hurt all of us. What caused that?” Luz recalled.

“That pain was Eda’s heart. The reason why we felt the pain was because our hearts are connected. It wasn’t a very strong connection, but we could feel it when her heart cried out in pain when I tried to separate the darkness of the curse.” Sora explained.

“So if we all felt it, then we all have a connection with Eda!” King realized.

“Our hearts are connected… You mean, like, as in friendship?!” Luz exclaimed joyously.

“I can assure you: the only feeling for all of you right now is hatred.” Eda dismissed them.

“Hey, do you think our hearts have a connection like that?” Willow and Gus asked.

“Maybe! We are friends after all.” Donald pointed out.

“It might be a weak connection, but it’ll grow stronger over time!” Goofy assured them.

“So we’re already close friends—” Eda glared at Luz with anger, “—but what scares me is that you said if you separated the curse, it would kill Eda! Is that really true?” Luz asked, worried.

“Sadly, it is… There’s a deep connection between Eda’s heart and the curse, and if I tried to remove it by force, it would tear her heart apart. If the heart is divided, it won’t take long before the person dies… Not only that, but the separated darkness can live on its own… There’s only one time when someone’s heart was torn apart by force, but they only survived because their heart made a special bond with someone else. I wasn’t willing to risk that happening…” Sora explained.

“Wow… It’s a good thing you didn’t follow through with the separation then.” Luz sighed.

“Having to deal with an owl curse forever would’ve been a pain.” King said jokingly.

“Wow, thanks for not killing me. That’s the kindest thing you’ve done since you got here.” Eda said seriously.

“Hey, what about helping with your chores, or even just hanging around and having fun together?” Luz argued.

“…Okay, fine, second kindest thing.” Eda rolled her eyes, smiling. Which one was first, she’ll never tell.

“So, does this mean that you’re not actually a criminal, but just wanted for something out of your control?” Gus asked.

“Oh no, I’m still a criminal, and rightfully wanted!” Eda said proudly. They couldn’t help but laugh. “This curse is just how I got the name.”

“Is there really nothing that can be done about your curse? It isn’t right that you have to be stuck like this…” Willow asked.

“Why are all of you so worried about my curse? I’ve been managing it for years!” Eda said, annoyed.

“Because we’re your friends and we want to help you! Why is that such a bad thing for us to do?” Sora asked sincerely.

“…Look, I appreciate your concern, I really do, but there’s nothing you can do to help me. You two are students who don’t know anything, you just don’t care, and you four know nothing about the Boiling Isles. I know what I’m doing, and I’ve been keeping it under control for a long time now, so please, stop worrying so much about it.” Eda insisted.

“Okay… but please, don’t be afraid to ask for our help.” Luz spoke for everyone.

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.” Eda smiled.

“Look, there it is!” Gus pointed to a large building ahead of them.

“Come on, let’s hurry and get in!” Willow insisted. They ran ahead, leaving the group behind.

“Oh, this is so exciting! My first witch convention!” Luz said excitedly.

“Eh, it happens every year. You’ll get over it soon enough.” King said.

“From one trainwreck to another…” Eda sighed. “Well, you three are placated for once.”

“We’re still really excited to see what kind of magic this world offers!” Goofy reassured her.

“I can’t wait to learn some powerful spells!” Donald said.

“Alright, let’s see what this Covenation is all about!” Sora declared.

The group caught up with Willow and Gus, who were waiting in front of the entrance. They were each holding a wanted poster of Eda that they tore off of the wall. Eda sighed when she saw the posters.

“Yeah, I figured this would happen. Gotta keep a low profile…” Eda said as she put on her cowl. She was struggling to get all of her hair to fit, so King, Luz, and Sora helped get all of her hair under her cowl.

“And you said my hair was ridiculous.” Sora joked.

“Hey, at least I look fabulous with my ‘ridiculous’ hair.” Eda shot back.

“Is the cowl really necessary?” Luz asked.

“Do you think all my wanted posters are for petty theft?” Eda asked rhetorically. Suddenly, various objects fell out of her cowl. Everyone stared at her with suspicion. “Partly.” She confessed, quickly shoving the items back into her cowl.

“What the… Were you carrying those the whole time?!” Sora asked, shocked.

“Of course not! I took them when we made our way here.” Eda winked. Sora was more shocked than before.

“So then what did you do to earn your wanted posters?” Gus asked.

“I think the question is: what didn’t she do.” King stated.

“While that’s not far from the truth, the big whammy is I disobeyed the law and refused to join a coven. If I’m seen here, I could go to jail. Again…” Eda explained.

“It’s the law to join a coven? That’s a strange law…” Donald noted.

“Doesn’t that mean we’re currently breaking the law?” Goofy asked nervously.

“We aren’t witches. Besides, we made our way through the Conformatorium, I’m sure we can make our way through whatever jail they put us in.” Sora said confidently.

“If they catch us, which they won’t!” Luz said. Eda couldn’t help but smile.

“Well, maybe this informative event will inspire you to join a coven.” Willow said. Eda stared at Willow with disapproval and created a small circle with her finger, causing Willow’s hood to pull completely over her face.

“Let’s just get this over with…” Eda groaned.

Inside the building, they immediately saw nine enormous flags hanging from the ceiling, each with a different symbol and different color. Vendors were closely packed together, some selling merchandise, some offering food, and some giving information about other covens. Wanted posters of Eda were inside the building as well. Everyone looked around in amazement at how dense and lively the Covenation was, except Eda and King, who were unimpressed.

“Gawrsh, it sure is crowded here.” Goofy noted.

“So many covens! So much magic potential!” Donald said, going slightly crazy for power.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been to a store this big before!” Sora shouted.

“Was I even alive before now?!” Luz gasped, still taking the scenery in.

“Those are the main nine covens,” Gus gestured to the flag, “but there are hundreds of other ones you can join!”

“There’s Flower Coven, Artist Coven, Big Dog Coven, Small Cat Coven, Tiniest Cat Coven—” Willow began listing. Eda groaned, irritated by all the covens they offer. “Also the Grumpy Coven.” Willow joked. Everyone but Eda began to laugh.

“What was that?!” Eda demanded, scaring everyone. They ran ahead, frightened by her threat.

“Man, there are way more covens than I thought there would be!” Luz said, fascinated.

“Yep! There’s just about a coven for everyone.” Gus stated.

“And everyone’s forced to join one of them? That’s a pretty bizarre law to have…” Sora said.

“I’m not sure why that’s a law either. They haven’t really covered that in History class yet.” Willow admitted.

By this point, Eda caught up with them again and they began observing the vendors. One area in particular caught the group’s attention, which was a demonstration area with a bunch of building materials.

“Ooh, which one’s that?” Luz asked as someone threw the building materials into the air with their bare hands.

“That’s the Construction Coven, one of the main nine. They use power glyphs to increase their strength.” Willow explained as the materials landed perfectly into a house. The construction worker took off their hardhat, which contained a stack of power glyphs. The construction worker put on one of the glyphs on the short prisoner that escaped from the Conformatorium, filling her with power and went on a rampage. Other members of the coven struggled to stop her. At least Eda was entertained by it.

“Yowza-wowza!” Luz gasped, watching the chaos unfold.

“Heh, I bet Terra would enjoy this coven!” Sora joked. Donald and Goofy couldn’t help but laugh.

Suddenly, an illusion of Luz and Sora appeared behind them and mimicked what they said. Luz and the trio looked at the illusions with shock as they made their way towards another vendor with a light-blue flag with a mirror on it. The illusions waved and faded away as two people made vanishing gestures.

“Ah, you’ve been taken in by the allure of the Illusionist Coven.” Gus said as he made his way towards the panel. “Here, we like to do magic with a hint of showmanship!” He drew a circle and disappeared in a puff of smoke, reappearing next to them a second later with the other two members as well.

“Illusions, huh? I’m sure Aqua would find a great way to use them.” Sora thought.

“Hey, your uniform color is the same as the Illusionist Coven flag color. Are they related?” Donald asked.

“Yep! Color coordination for easy understanding!” Gus gestured to his light-blue sleeves.

“Say, Willow, you said you were enrolled into the Plant Magic Track. Does that mean that the Plant Magic Coven uses green for their color?” Goofy asked.

“Exactly! You’re starting to get the hang of it!” Willow said, impressed.

“Wow! Acceptance, comradery, a sense of belonging; Covens sound incredible!” Luz remarked. “I still don’t understand, Eda: why haven’t you ever joined one?”

“Watch closely, all of you.” Eda pointed back to the Illusionist Coven panel, where a witch decided to join. He held out his hand and one of the members placed a small Illusionist Coven glyph on his wrist. Strange light-blue veins appeared all over his body now. “When you join a coven, all your other magic is sealed away. From now on, that kid will only be able to make illusions. Since I never joined a coven, I can do every kind of magic.” Eda explained as she created a ball of water and fire in her hands. “That’s why I’m the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles.” She walked away with confidence. Everyone stared at her with amazement and quickly followed behind her.

They continued to walk around and look at various panels. Willow and Gus explained a little about each of the Covens they visited, although Eda didn’t care about any of them. Along the way, they lost King, but weren’t worried about finding him. As they were walking around, one of the vendors stopped the group.

“Long time, no see, kupo!” A mysterious voice said. Everyone looked over at the voice, mostly because they were confused about what a “kupo” is, and saw a small furry creature with tiny purple wings and a red ball on top of its head.

“Moogle?!” The trio shouted as they ran over to him. The rest of the group looked at each other with confusion as they slowly made their way to the stall.

“Do you know this adorable little fella, Eda?” Luz asked, captivated by his adorableness.

“No, I’ve never seen any creature like this on the Boiling Isle before…” Eda said.

“But how come it recognizes those three?” Willow asked.

“Yeah, I thought they said they never came here before.” Gus recalled.

“Guys, this is Moogle, a uh… world traversing merchant.” Sora introduced him vaguely.

“New customers! Welcome, kupo!” Moogle said with excitement.

“Slow down there, buddy. We ain’t interested in what you’re selling.” Eda dismissed him.

“You said you three were the only ones that came on your ship, so how did this absolute cutie get here as well? Does he have his own ship, his own tiny, adorable ship?” Luz asked as she got closer to him.

“I’m actually not sure how he got here. How’d you get here before we did, Moogle?” Sora asked.

“The same way I get to every planet, kupo.” Moogle said.

“Which is…?” Sora fished for a less vague answer.

“It’s a secret, kupo.” Moogle answered. Everyone slumped over in defeat.

“So, what do you sell here?” Willow asked.

“If you travel to other worlds, do you have things from the human world?!” Gus asked eagerly.

“Nope, just things to help you on your journey, kupo.” Moogle replied. The group looked at him with disappointment, but the trio was still happy to see him.

“Well, we could use this opportunity to restock on our supplies.” Goofy suggested.

“Yeah, we’ll take some ethers and potions.” Donald ordered.

Sora pulled out some munny from his pockets, which stayed as yellow diamonds this time, and handed them over to Moogle. Moogle brought out six jars with green stars in them and six blue cubes, and the trio took two each.

“So that’s what your potions and ethers look like.” Eda noted for bootlegging. “Hold on, I thought you three said you could create potions and ethers with those weird materials your monsters drop.”

“We still can, it’s just that it requires a closed environment in order for the synthesis materials to gather power and fuse together.” Sora began to explain. “Your cauldron would be a good place to—”

“Forget it, you ain’t touching my cauldron!” Eda said with hostility. “I’ve had my cauldron ever since I stole it from school. It has a lot of sentimental value; I’m not risking you damaging or even destroying it.”

“I promise you, synthesizing is safe so long as you follow the recipe, so your cauldron will be safe. Besides, in my weakened state, these’ll really help as the Heartless and Nobodies increase in strength and numbers the longer they remain in this world.” Sora said.

“Well… I’ll think about finding some sort of alternative.” Eda said, thinking about the inconveniences it would cause in the future.

“Well, thanks for the items, Moogle!” Sora thanked as the group began to walk away.

“Farewell, kupo!” Moogle said as he waved.

“What exactly is a ‘kupo’?” The group asked the trio when they were far enough away.

“Look, we’ve been shopping from him for 18 years now. We still have no idea.” They answered.

They continued to walk around and view the rest of the panels. After making their way through everything once, they stopped at the end of the building. There were guards wearing white capes and masks on the outside of ropes leading toward a door. There was a black flag with a triangle, sword, wings, and a ball of light above the door. They stopped before the guards.

“This panel looks popular.” Luz noted as many people began walking towards the door.

“It’s the Emperor’s Coven! Do you think they’ll sign my forehead?!” Gus asked eagerly.

“Only one way to find out!” Willow said. They both ran through the entrance, leaving the others behind. Luz and the trio began to follow them, but stopped when they noticed Eda didn’t follow them.

“Aren’t you coming, Eda?” Luz asked.

“No way. Of all the covens, they’re the worst. I’ll wait out here.” Eda dismissed them.

“I get it, Eda; Covens bad. Individualism good. But I’m still figuring this world out, so I’m going to go in there and make up my own mind.” Luz reassured her. She ran through the entrance.

Eda noticed the trio still standing there. “Why do you three want to go there so badly? You know the consequences of joining a coven.” She asked.

“Don’t worry, Eda, we won’t be joining any covens. I just want to see some more powerful spells so I can try to learn them myself!” Donald answered.

“But Luz is right: we are still exploring this world. I mean, we didn’t even know the Boiling Isles had an emperor.” Goofy said.

“Think of it as recon. We’ll go in to gather information, then leave without anyone noticing. We’ll be back before you know it.” Sora said. The trio made their way towards the entrance and walked through a bunch of corridors.

Once they made it outside by following the crowd, they were in the stands of a circular stadium with a podium on the far side. The stands were full of people excited to see the presentation. They looked around the stands to try and find a place to sit, when they noticed Luz waving at them. They made their way over to her, being careful of the other people.

“I found us some open seats!” Luz said as the trio sat next to her.

“Great find, Luz!” Sora complimented. “I can’t wait to see what this Coven’s all about. This one’s way more crowded than the other ones!”

“I know Miss Eda doesn’t like Covens, but why did she say this one was the worst?” Goofy asked.

“It’s probably just because she’s a criminal, and if they serve the emperor, they’ll probably try and arrest her.” Donald guessed.

“But what kind of magic do they use in this Coven? I could guess the magic in the other Covens, but I have not idea what they’ll use for this one. I don’t think ‘Emperor’ magic is a real thing.” Luz joked. “Also, who is the Emperor? Never even heard of him until now.”

“Well, only one way to find out.” Sora said as he faced the stadium.

“All right, let’s see this mess…” Eda said as she sat next to the group.

“Eda! You made it!” Luz said happily.

“Not exactly by choice.” Eda rolled her eyes.

“How’d you find us so easily in a crowd this big?” Sora asked.

“I’ll give you three guesses.” Eda said sarcastically as she gestured to the trio’s entire bodies.

The lights began to fade as the presentation began. Green smoke gathered on the podium, and Principle Bump appeared with a microphone. Sora looked at him with fear and quickly put his hood on. Eda looked at him like he was crazy (at least more than usual).

“What’re you… oh right, you fought him when you snuck into school.” Eda remembered.

“It’ll be best if I keep a low profile while he’s around. I don’t want to risk him recognizing me and getting into another fight…” Sora said.

“Hello, Bonesborough!” Principal Bump greeted. “Students ask me all the time, ‘Principal Bump, what’s the height of magical achievement?’”

“Is it this?” A student asked as he made his head enormous.

“Wow, I failed you as a principal…” Principal Bump muttered in utter disappointment. “It’s being selected to join the best of the best, and there are none better than the jewel of the coven system and the enforcers of His will, the Emperor’s Coven.” He announced as three guards appeared in front of him.

“Luz! Sora!” Willow and Gus called from across the stands. They were pointing at Gus’ forehead, which was signed by the Emperor’s Coven. They laughed and waved back at them.

“Feast your eyes on this elite force, each member handpicked to help usher in a new age of controlled magic.” Principal Bump said as the guards drew white circles, each casting a powerful bolt of magic into the air, which gathered and created a blast of light. Luz and the trio looked at the light with fascination, but Eda was still unimpressed.

“When does that elite force get here?” Eda laughed way too hard at her own joke.

“Members of the Emperor’s Coven have access to all— yes, all forms of magic! But… only the best can ascend these ranks. Some day, that could be one of you!” Principal Bump pointed to someone in the crowd. Luz and the trio looked to see who he was pointing to, and saw it was Amity. They looked at her with concern.

“Amity’s here… We should try to avoid her.” Sora whispered to Luz, nodding in agreement.

“And now, I’m pleased to introduce the esteemed leader of this coven and this year’s mystery guest. You know her, you love her! Lilith!” Principal Bump announced. Eda immediately stopped laughing then she heard that name.

The three guards vanished, and a large light-blue spectral raven appeared in the air. It flew around the stadium before landing on the podium. The raven spread its wings and dispersed into balls of light, revealing a woman with a white cloak and a mask floating above her head. The crowd cheered wildly when Lilith revealed herself. Luz and the trio cheered as well, But Eda stared at her with a blank expression.

“You know her?” Luz guessed.

“You could say that…” Eda hesitated.

“More mysterious past!” Luz gasped. The trio glanced at each other, even more curious about the Emperor’s Coven now.

“Thank you, all.” Lilith said as she took off her cloak. Principal Bump caught it and the mask and left the podium. “It wasn’t easy for me to rise to the top. I also started from humble beginnings. Now, I have the highest honor of enforcing the Emperor’s will. So be more! The Emperor’s Coven awaits you!” She announced. She created another large spectral raven, causing the crowd to cheer again. Eda stared at Lilith with hatred the entire time. The trio whispered among each other.

“Again, not very informative.” Donald rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, I still have some questions about the Emperor’s Coven.” Goofy admitted.

“Why don’t we try and find her once this is over? Maybe we can learn something about Eda as well.” Sora suggested. Donald and Goofy nodded in agreement.

Once the presentation was over, the trio tried to leave as quickly as possible.

“Hey, wait! Where are you three going?” Luz asked, trying to stop them.

“Oh, uh… I just realized Moogle cheated us out and made us pay more munny than normal.” Sora lied.

“I knew there was something up with that merchant. Us con artists can recognize each other pretty easily.” Eda said.

“We’re gonna go talk with him real quick. Should we meet up somewhere?” Sora asked.

“Don’t bother. We can find you three from a mile away.” Eda dismissed them.

“Alright, we’ll catch up later. Go get your money back!” Luz said. The trio quickly ran out of the stadium and made their way back to the rest of the vendors.

“Any idea where she went?” Goofy asked as he began looking around.

“There’s too many people and booths in the way to see clearly!” Donald said, annoyed.

“We can get a better view from higher up. Goofy, can you give me a boost?” Sora asked as he pointed to one of the support columns.

Goofy summoned his shield and held it over his head. Sora jumped off his shield, nearly reaching the ceiling. He grabbed onto the support column and began observing the crowded building. After looking around, he found Lilith at the opposite side of the building. He jumped off the support column and began skydiving back to the ground, rolling just as he hit the ground.

“I found her! She’s over by the entrance.” Sora said.

“She must be trying to leave the Covenation.” Donald guessed.

“We’d better hurry before she leaves.” Goofy suggested. They began running back to the entrance to meet up and question Lilith.

When they made it back to the entrance, they saw Lilith talking to a bunch of young students. They didn’t want to interrupt their conversations, so they waited patiently behind everyone else. Lilith noticed the trio quickly and greeted them.

“Ah, more students. Although, you’re not in your normal school attire…” Lilith noted.

“I-I mean… this wasn’t a school event. We didn’t really have to wear our uniforms… right?” Sora panicked.

“I suppose you’re right, Covenation is not strictly for students.” Lilith admitted. “So, is there anything I can assist you in? Judging by your age, you’re still young and have plenty of time before you have to pick your Coven. Are you perhaps aiming to make it into the Emperor’s Coven and looking for advice?”

“Uh… yes, we do have some questions about the Emperor’s Coven we’d like to ask about.” Sora said.

“Very well, ask away.” Lilith insisted.

“How exactly does one join the Emperor’s Coven?” Goofy asked.

“Only the best of the best is allowed to join the Emperor’s Coven. They must display high intelligence, great strength, and most of all an unwavering will and determination.” Lilith stated.

“Gawrsh, sounds like we all would fit in here!” Goofy said, referring to Eda and Luz as well.

“How come only the Emperor’s Coven can perform every type of magic?” Donald asked.

“It is so they are suitable for any threat that may occur. Those that make it into the Emperor’s Coven are given the privilege of learning the very magic they swore to protect.” Lilith answered.

“Something’s still odd about limiting the magic that can be performed…” Donald mumbled. Whether he was too quiet to hear or just too unintelligible, Lilith doesn’t notice.

“What exactly does the Emperor’s Coven do besides enforcing the law?” Sora asked.

“Along with enforcing His will, we are tasked with mentoring students that we personally picked that show potential and teach them to become the next generation of the Emperor’s Coven.” Lilith said proudly.

“Best of the best, wielding all magic, apprentices… I still don’t get it… Why did Eda say this was the worst coven?” Sora pondered. Lilith’s eyes widened when she heard Eda’s name.

“Eda? As in ‘The Owl Lady’ Eda?! You’ve encountered The Owl Lady?!” Lilith asked forcefully.

“I-I-I mean, we’ve talked with her before, but—” Sora began to panic.

“Edalyn is a great threat and must be avoided at all cost! Please, if you have any information about her whereabouts, disclose them at once. She must be captured and brought in!” Lilith insisted.

“What? No way! We’re not telling you anything about Eda!” Sora said defensively. “…Wait, Edalyn? That’s her name?”

“Why would you willingly hide information about Edalyn?! She is the most dangerous criminal on the Boiling Isles and needs to… be…” Lilith began arguing, but trailed off then she noticed Eda walking behind them with her big red cowl on. “…Sister?” She called out. Eda turned around and looked at Lilith with dread.

“Yep, that’s Eda.” Sora said bluntly. Lilith’s statement took a while to set in. “…Wait, sister?!”

“It’s been so long since I’ve seen you last!” Lilith mocked as she got closer to Eda. “What are you wearing? You look like some sort of trash collector. Oh, right. You are.”

“Oh, Lily. I just had to see the leader of the Emperor’s Coven in action.” Eda said sarcastically. “You know, when we were kids, Lilith was so excited to see the Emperor’s Coven, she peed a little.” She told the kids. They began to laugh, embarrassing Lilith.

“…That’s all for today.” Lilith dismissed the kids. Once they left, she stared at Eda with hatred. “What are you doing?! You shouldn’t even be here!” She demanded.

“Trust me, it wasn’t my choice to be here.” Eda rolled her eyes.

“Slow down! Edalyn?! Lily?! Sisters?!” The trio shouted, bewildered.

“Yes, we’re sisters, get over it already.” Eda said, irritated. “I’ve accepted crazier things you’ve said, you should easily get over Lily and I being sisters.”

“But… you look so much older than Lilith does!” Sora shouted bluntly, making Eda even more mad.

“Actually, I’m the older sibling among us, something that’s very apparent given her childish nature.” Lilith mocked.

“You’re the older one?! But… that doesn’t make any sense!” Sora said in disbelief.

“Kid, you have no right to say that sentence!” Eda shot back.

“Enough of your banter! Edalyn, why are you here? You’re a wanted criminal! You know the dangers! Unless…” Lilith looked at the trio and thought about their conversation. “…I don’t believe it! You’re here to join the Emperor’s Coven!” She said happily as she grabbed Eda’s hands.

“In your dreams!” Eda laughed hysterically as she pulled her hands back. Lilith stared at Eda with hatred.

“You think being covenless makes you so much smarter than everyone else, but while you run from the law like a degenerate, I’m mentoring the next generation of powerful witch students into the world!” Lilith gloated.

“Well, along with these three clowns, I have my own student, and I bet any of them could wipe the floor with any of your prissy little blue bloods!” Eda shot back.

“Wait, don’t drag us into this!” The trio begged.

“Is that a challenge?” Lilith got in Eda’s face.

“Oh, it’s a promise!” Eda threatened. The trio glanced at each other nervously, afraid of what they just got roped into. Suddenly, Luz ran up to them and broke their staredown.

“Eda, I need your help! I accidentally challenged Amity to a Witch’s Duel, and I think she’s going to kill me all the way dead!” Luz fell onto the ground in despair.

“Well, it seems your student has already met my strongest protégé.” Lilith said condescendingly.

“Amity’s your apprentice?! Not good…” Sora dreaded fighting her again.

“My, look at those ears! Is she a human? Where did you even find one of these?!” Lilith mocked as she observed Luz. Luz covered her ears in embarrassment.

“Stop making fun of her just because Luz is a human!” Sora demanded as he took off his hood and stood in a fighting stance. Not that he can tell, but his hair mostly hides his ears anyway. Still, it’s symbolic “That’s enough, we’ll take you on! You’re going to pay for insulting and threatening my friends!”

“My, my! Two animal-witch hybrids and two humans! How intriguing…” Lilith stared at Sora with a smirk. She drew a light-blue circle, and suddenly all the wanted posters of Eda went up in flames. “Okay, Edalyn. For one day, you won’t have to hide from the law, because I want to see how good a teacher you really are.” She said menacingly as she walked away.

“Glad to see you three are ready to fight.” Eda smirked at the trio. She kneeled down and put her hand on Luz’s shoulder. “Now come on, kid. Time to prepare for bloodshed.” She said seriously.

“But… who’s blood?” Luz asked in fear.

“Anyone’s guess!” Eda said as she slapped Luz’s back. Luz gave a nervous smile in response. Sora and Eda helped Luz back onto her feet and everyone began looking around for a place to prepare for their inevitable battle against Amity again. Eda was of course determined to prove Lilith wrong, but Sora wanted to help protect Luz from whatever danger she would face, even if it meant facing Lilith herself. Another grueling battle was ahead of them, and Sora was ready to fight for his friend’s protections.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: I hope you enjoyed another chapter in this story! These have been a very difficult 2 weeks, having to deal with nonstop exams and essays, but I’m glad I was able to get this chapter done in time. This chapter was shorter than all the others, as well as mostly dialogue, but I hope it was still enjoyable nonetheless. The joke about shopping with Moogle for 18 years was that the first Kingdom Hearts game released 18 years ago. The next chapter will be featuring a bunch of fight scenes, so I hope it will be compensation for this chapter having mostly dialogue. I’ve been trying my best to continue building the relationships between Eda, Luz, King, and the trio, and I hope it comes across well. I plan to dress up as Eda in her pajamas for Halloween this year, and I hope everyone else has a Happy Halloween! Once again, thank you for your continued support, and I look forward to seeing you in the next chapter!


	7. Witch's Duel

Luz, Eda, and the trio were wandering around the Covenation looking for a quiet and isolated place to prepare for their duel against Amity and Lilith. Eda and the trio were walking with determination, but Luz was practically shaking in fear of losing to Amity. The trio tried to comfort her as best they could, but it didn’t help. There was something else about the fight that had Luz worried, but the trio didn’t know what.

They were still looking for a place to prepare when suddenly Principal Bump’s voice could be heard across the entire building. “Attention, everyone. We have a very special event about to take place. A Witch’s Duel has been declared!” He announced. “The Duel will be between the apprentices of Lilith, leader of the Emperor’s Coven, and Eda the Owl Lady, the Boiling Isle’s most renowned criminal. The Witch’s Duel will begin in one hour. Seatings are currently closed, but will be open shortly.”

“What have I gotten myself into?!” Luz cried out in despair.

“Eh, you’ve gotten us into worse situations.” Eda said. “It’s just that the loser will forever be humiliated and their reputation tarnished. Which is why Lilith is going down!”

“I… I don’t know if I can do this. There’s too much at stake in this fight…” Luz said fearfully.

“You don’t have to worry about it so much, Luz. We got roped into this duel as well, so we’ll be fighting alongside you.” Sora reassured her. “Together, I’m sure we can take them down!” Luz gave a small smirk at Sora’s remark, feeling comforted by his courage.

They came across a secluded corner of the building, far enough away from the vendors. There were empty and unused boxes lying around. “Well, this place is good enough to prepare for the bloodshed.” Eda said as she slid one of the boxes towards Luz. “Okay, time for some basic training. We’ll start with defensive plays first.”

“You don’t have to worry about us, we’re all set when it comes to fighting. Maybe we could help train Luz as well.” Sora offered.

“I wasn’t going to bother training you three in the first place, but sure, you can help prepare Luz for the devastating onslaught that is Witch’s Duel.” Eda said happily. She reached into her hair, pulled out a headband, and put it on. The trio stared at her with confusion and wanted to ask how that was possible, but Eda shot a glare of anger towards them. The trio flinched in fear of another outburst of them being hypocritical, and Eda couldn’t help but laugh. Finally, they turned their attention towards Luz, who was still shaking nervously on the box.

“All right, Luz. Let’s start your training.” Eda declared. “I’ll start first. Now, I’m coming at you with a blast of fire. What do you do?” She asked as she loomed over Luz menacingly. Luz simply put on her hood, lay on the ground, and squealed in fear. “Oh, that’s right. I haven’t taught you any spells.” She remembered. Luz slowly shook her head in agreement.

“Well… at least we’ll be able to protect you.” Sora pointed out.

“Yeah, looks like these three clowns saved you again.” Eda laughed. “I mean, it’s not like you made an everlasting oath to stop learning magic or anything. Otherwise, you’d be toast!”

“Wait, an everlasting oath? What’s that?!” Sora asked, worried.

“Is there a glowy hand thing that happens, or…?” Luz began to ask. Eda and the trio’s eyes widened at her question.

Luz was interrupted when they saw Lilith and Amity practicing. “Abomination, rise!” Amity commanded as she summoned a small abomination out of the ground, which threw its head and destroyed one of the vendor booths. Luz and the trio looked at Amity with fear; they knew she was stronger than last time, and if she created another Unversed, it would be a much rougher fight.

“Oh, this is bad…” Eda sighed as she watched Lilith and Amity.

“I can’t believe I’m gonna have to stop learning magic!” Luz cried out in despair.

“Wait, what?! Why do you have to stop learning magic?!” The trio asked, concerned.

“Luz decided to make an everlasting oath that would be settled in a Witch’s Duel. Seems like if she loses, which is looking more likely than ever, she betted giving up learning magic.” Eda quickly put together.

“B-but… we’re still here! We can fight with her! We’ll make sure Luz doesn’t lose!” Sora panicked.

“That’s not gonna happen. Because she made an everlasting oath, this is now a one-on-one fight. She’s on her own now…” Eda explained as she looked at Luz panicking on the ground.

“Then what are we gonna do?! We challenged Lilith as well! So that makes us in on this oath too, right?” Sora asked.

“My guess? You’re on Heartless duty again. I mean, it’s nothing you can’t handle.” Eda shrugged.

“I’m gonna stop learning magic… this is all my fault!” Luz sulked. Eda and the trio began to worry about Luz, but Eda stepped up to take charge.

“Listen to me, Luz. We are not gonna let those snobs win that easy! We’re not gonna let them win at all! I’ve got an idea that’ll make sure you win.” Eda said inspirationally. They began to look at Eda with hope, until her headband snapped in half, unable to contain Eda’s hair. One of the pieces of the headband smacked Sora in the face, who flinched and covered his face.

With the inspiration thoroughly ruined, Eda helped Luz back on her feet and made their way back to the stadium. They went through different corridors then last time, and ended up down in the arena this time.

“These walls are much taller from down here!” Donald said in amazement.

“I’m sure I could use Flowmotion well off these walls.” Sora said, imagining a fight in his head.

“Well, the walls are good, but the center is completely empty.” Goofy pointed.

“Um, Eda? What exactly is your plan?” Luz asked, not comforted at all.

“I’m gonna create some magic traps on the ground. Once Amity steps on them, it’ll activate and you’ll win in no time! This is the perfect time to set them up while the stadium’s empty.” Eda schemed.

“What?! That’s cheating!!” Luz protested.

“Eh, nobody will know. To everyone up there, it’ll look like you’re performing magic. Just trust me, it’ll work out.” Eda tried to reassure her.

“But I’ll know in my heart! Even if I win, I lose…” Luz said in despair.

“That’s the spirit!” Eda said as she ruffled Luz’s hair.

“No, that’s not the spirit!” Luz shouted as she pushed Eda’s hand off her head. “Come on you three, back me up on this! There has to be a better way for me to win than to cheat, right?” She asked the trio.

“Well, it definitely is wrong for us to cheat in order to win.” Goofy agreed.

“But right now, there’s too much at risk that we don’t really have a choice.” Donald pointed out.

“I don’t think that one light spell you know will be enough for you to win on your own. I’m sorry Luz, but this is all we can do to make sure you continue learning magic.” Sora admitted.

“But… fine, if it’s what I have to do to keep learning magic, then I’ll do it…” Luz said reluctantly. “I’m gonna feel so guilty about winning though…”

“You’ll learn to get over that feeling.” Eda tried to cheer her up. “Well, it’s time we set up the traps.”

“We? How can we help set them up?” Sora asked, confused.

“Duh, by covering them up.” Eda said. She closed her hand and her staff appeared, extending out in both directions. She took her staff and drew a circle around her feet. Once it was drawn, she stepped out of the circle and slammed her staff in the circle, causing it to turn red and flash. She looked at the circle satisfied, then noticed Sora staring at her. “What?” She finally asked.

“That’s sort of like how I summon my Keyblade.” Sora said, referring to Eda’s staff.

“Just shut up and cover the traps.” Eda said, unamused. “We don’t have much time before the stands get filled, so hurry it up.”

Eda continued to set up traps around the arena while Luz and the trio covered them with nearby dirt, making their way from one side to the other. They almost set one of them off only a few times. Once they were in the center of the arena, however, Heartless began jumping into the arena from the stands. Shadows, Soldiers, and Large Bodies were running towards them and their traps.

“Of course they would show up now!” Sora sighed.

“Why do they always show up in the worst possible time?!” Luz complained as she hid behind Eda.

“Don’t let them set off any of the traps!” Eda ordered as she slammed her staff on the ground.

Eda and Donald focused on stopping the Large Bodies. Some of the Large Bodies were charging towards them at full speed, while some of them were sliding. Donald cast Magnet in front of them, pulling all the Large Bodies towards them. Once they were all condensed, Eda created a large circle with her staff in front of them, which split into smaller circles that all shot out bolts of lightning. They struck the Large Bodies, stopping them in their tracks and flipping them on their backs, leaving them defenseless. Donald cast Thunder on the toppled Large Bodies, which combined with Eda’s lightning bolts, quickly defeated them.

Goofy prioritized the Soldiers. The Soldiers wandered up to Goofy and began slashing at him, but Goofy was able to block them easily with his shield. Enraged, they began recklessly performing spinning kicks. Goofy used his shield to deflect their kicks, causing them to kick each other and take each other out. With their numbers greatly reduced, Goofy was able to defeat the remaining Soldiers by charging through them.

Sora dealt with the mini horde of Shadows. There were so many Shadows that were running so quickly, it was up to Sora’s quick movements to stop them all. He slashed through the Shadows with ease, jumping back and forth between them all. The more he defeated, the more hesitant the Shadows were to charge towards Sora, so Sora ran after them and cleared them out. Luz wasn’t much help against the Heartless, but she called out whenever Sora was getting close to a trap.

When the fighting was over, Eda looked back to check on the traps. Thankfully, all of the traps were still intact.

“Well, that sure was a distraction. Anyway, back to making more traps.” Eda said nonchalantly. “We’d better hurry before they allow the audience to enter.” She was about to place another trap, but stopped when she saw a single Shadow wandering around. She was about to squish it with her staff, but Sora stopped her.

“Hold on, Eda. This lone Shadow might actually be a good thing!” Sora said. “Luz, why don’t you test out your light spell on that Shadow? Maybe we can figure out some way for you to use it against Amity.”

“Well, it would be a better moral victory than having to cheat…” Luz admitted. “But isn’t it still dangerous for me to approach it without a weapon?”

“Don’t worry, when they’re alone, they’re hardly a threat. Besides, maybe your light spell is actually a good weapon.” Sora pointed out.

“Okay, just… please stay close to me.” Luz said fearfully. She and Sora slowly approached the Shadow.

“Oh, sure, just ignore my flawless plan we agreed on that would definitely make us win!” Eda shouted, irritated.

“Don’t worry, Miss Eda, Donald and I’ll help set up the rest of the traps.” Goofy offered.

“I have a feeling we’re gonna need these traps to win…” Donald grumbled.

“At least you two have some common sense.” Eda said. “Well, we better hurry up and set the rest of the traps.” Donald, Goofy, and Eda went around the rest of the arena to finish setting up the traps.

Sora and Luz walked up to the single Shadow, which was still unaware of their presence. Once they were a few feet away from it, it finally noticed them and tried to slash at them. Luz hid behind Sora, but he simply blocked it with its Keyblade, knocking it on its back and struggling to get back up.

“Well, it’s vulnerable now. Let’s go ahead and try out your light spell.” Sora gestured to the Shadow.

“W-well… I guess I’ll give it a try.” Luz said. She hesitantly walked up to the Shadow, which was still struggling to get back up.

Luz took out a notepad and her pen and began drawing the light glyph again. When she finished it, she tore off the piece of paper and was about to activate it when the Shadow sunk into the ground and reappeared in front of them, ready to attack. Luz panicked and activated the glyph, turning the paper into a ball of light. The ball of light gave off a faint glow, knocking the Shadow back. It slowly approached the ball of light and slashed at it, popping it. With the ball of light gone, the Shadow began running towards Luz again and tried to attack her again. Luz backed away in fear, but Sora blocked it again with his Keyblade, knocking it on its back again.

“That didn’t exactly work out…” Sora said, a little disappointed, but not disappointed in Luz.

“I’m sorry it didn’t work out… I tried my best, but it didn’t stop it at all. I don’t know what to do at all with this spell…” Luz sulked. “I’m a failure of a witch apprentice, and now I’m gonna stop learning magic all together…”

“It’s okay, Luz, you’re not a failure, you’re just still learning. I remember when I first started wielding the Keyblade, I had no idea how to use it. It takes time and practice to figure out how to use your tools and powers properly.” Sora tried to comfort her.

“But I don’t have time to practice, and after this duel, I’ll never be able to practice again!” Luz cried out.

The Shadow got back up and began charging at them again. Sora was about to finish it off with his Keyblade, when Eda stabbed it with the bottom of her staff, defeating it.

“While you two were busy messing around with this bug, we finished setting up the traps.” Eda said harshly. “Now quit your sulking, we’re not going to let them win!”

“I guess I really do have no choice but to cheat if I want to keep learning magic…” Luz admitted.

“I know it’s not what you were hoping for, but it’s the best we can do for now. I mean, you’ve been training hard, and you’ve been making so much progress! With some more training, you’ll be much more powerful, and maybe you could challenge her to another Witch’s Duel, without any cheating.” Sora cheered her up.

“Well, if we win this, I’ll definitely want a proper rematch.” Luz said.

“Trust me, with this plan, we’re gonna win! You’re not gonna stop learning magic anytime soon!” Eda said confidently as she placed her hand on Luz’s shoulder.

They began to smile, but stopped when they heard Principal Bump’s voice again. “Attention, everyone. The Witch’s Duel will commence shortly. Seatings are now open. Better hurry and grab a seat, this is a duel you don’t want to miss!” He announced.

“Sounds like we finished just in time.” Donald pointed out.

“So now what do we do?” Goofy asked.

“Everything’s set up, so now we just wait for the bloodshed to commence.” Eda rubbed her hands together in anticipation.

“Are you going to be okay with this, Luz?” Sora asked.

“I mean, not morally, but it’s what we have to do.” Luz admitted.

“Getting pumped up, huh? That’s more like it!” Eda said proudly.

“Oh no, I’m still terrified of this fight!” Luz gave a nervous smile.

“Is there anything else we can do to help out?” Sora asked.

“I don’t think so… It’s just all on me to lure her Abominations into the traps.” Luz gazed at the dozens of mounds.

“Well, we believe in you, Luz!” Donald comforted her.

“Yeah! I’m sure you can win this battle!” Goofy agreed.

“Thanks, everyone. It helps to hear that.” Luz smiled.

They stood around and waited for Amity and Lilith to show up and begin the duel. The stands quickly filled up with hundreds of people, ready to watch the battle. Luz lost her confidence and became progressively more nervous about the fight.

“Man, not a shabby crowd at all.” Eda observed the stands. “Pretty impressive for your first Witch’s Duel.” She nudged Luz.

“Yeah, impressive…” Luz said quietly.

“Will you be okay? You still remember the plan, right?” Sora asked.

“I remember the mounds. It’s just… what if someone notices? We’ll be in big trouble if someone finds out…” Luz nervously pointed out.

“You don’t have to worry about that. One or two traps should be more than enough to win you the fight.” Eda said mischievously.

“So why did we set up so many traps if she barely needs to use them?” Donald grumbled.

“Is there anything else we can do now? It’s kind of too late…” Goofy said.

Luz fidgeted for a moment before she looked at Sora. “Do you think I can use your Keyblade for the duel?” She finally asked.

“Lily and the audience never saw you with it, so they don’t know that it isn’t yours.” Eda pondered. “You know, that might actually work! It’ll make it look like you already have your own magic staff! It can already cast spells, so with that and the traps combined, you’ll look incredibly powerful!”

“But Sora’s the chosen wielder of the Keyblade.” Donald reminded them.

“Yeah, it’ll just return to Sora after a short time.” Goofy agreed.

“I remember, chosen wielder and all that. But there’s gotta be some sort of exception to it, right? We could use every advantage we could get.” Luz said.

“I’m not sure… It’ll definitely return to me after a short period of time, but maybe you can use it before that happens. Maybe it can work.” Sora theorized. “I’ll hand it off to you just before the fight starts. Use it as best you can before it returns to me.”

“Thank you so much!” Luz hugged Sora.

“Alright, you have no excuse to lose now. You’ve gotta win now, got it?” Eda asked as she put her hand on Luz’s shoulder. Luz nodded, her confidence restored.

Just then, Lilith and Amity walked arrogantly out of the corridor. The crowd cheered once they entered. They stopped and stared at the group.

“So you actually showed up.” Lilith noted.

“You know me, Lily, I never back down from a challenge.” Eda shot back.

“So where’s our challenger, huh? Couldn’t help but notice it’s just the two of you.” Sora tried to insult her, but was actually just curious.

“Amity mentioned that she already faced off against you three before, but was interrupted due to unforeseen circumstances. That little dispute will be continued after she settles the everlasting oath with the human.” Lilith explained confidently.

“I’m going to finish the mess you three caused at school. But first, it’s time I put you in your place, human.” Amity threatened.

“Bring it on, Amity. I’m not gonna lose anytime soon!” Luz said confidently. Amity glared at her with hatred.

Lilith and Amity walked away and made their way to the podium. They didn’t notice the mounds covering the magic traps, and almost walked on one of them. Luz and the trio were fearful of accidentally setting one off, but Eda watched in anticipation. When they reached the podium, Luz and the trio sighed in relief, but Eda was disappointed everybody still had their feet. Lilith and Amity faced the group, ready to face off. Lilith raised her arms into the air, and the crowd became quiet.

“Beloved citizens, the Emperor’s Coven proudly presents an impromptu demonstration of the sort of witch we seek every year. This year’s demonstration will be performed as a Witch’s Duel. Representing the Emperor’s Coven is none other than Amity Blight, top student of Hexside!” Lilith announced. Amity stepped forward, and the crowd cheered wildly.

“Versus… some human girl.” Lilith said unenthusiastically. Eda and the trio were standing in front of Luz when Lilith called to them. They moved to the side and gestured to Luz confidently. Sora summoned his Keyblade and quickly handed it to Luz as he moved out of the way. She held the Keyblade close to her and smiled nervously. The crowd began to boo her.

“Don’t bother listening to the crowd, Luz.” Donald comforted her.

“Yeah, don’t let them distract you!” Goofy agreed.

“We believe in you, Luz! You’ve got this!” Sora cheered.

“Break a leg, kid. Or even better, break hers!” Eda laughed.

“Okay… here we go.” Luz said nervously.

A bell began to ring, signaling the start of the fight. Amity and Luz began walking towards the center until they came face-to-face. She noticed Luz holding the Keyblade close to her.

“Hold on, that’s not your weapon. He was the one that used it last time!” Amity yelled as she pointed at Sora.

“Uh… t-this is actually my weapon. He’s just my brother, who happens to have one that’s identical to mine. You know… duplicates…” Luz panicked.

“Whatever, that won’t change anything. Humans can’t cast magic, and that pathetic weapon of yours won’t save you. Abomination, rise!” Amity said angrily as she drew a circle on the ground. Once completed, an Abomination began to pull itself out of the circle, but this Abomination was massive, even taller than the walls in the arena! Luz and the trio stared at the Abomination in horror.

“That Abomination is massive!” Goofy pointed out.

“It’s way bigger than the one she summoned an hour ago!” Donald said in fear.

“Yeah, a little too big…” Eda speculated as she narrowed her eyes on Lilith.

“Whoa…” Amity said in amazement at her own power. “Show me what you got, human!” She mocked. Luz wasn’t moving, paralyzed in fear.

“Come on, Luz, don’t give up yet! You can still win this!” Sora cheered.

Luz snapped out of her fear, just in time to run away from the massive Abomination before it crushed her. “I don’t do well under pressure!” She cried out. She turned around to face the Abomination again, remembering that she had the Keyblade in her hands. “Uh… uh… Fire!” She shouted as she nervously pointed it at the Abomination’s head, trembling. Unfortunately, the Keyblade didn’t cast any spell. The Abomination tried to squish Luz under its fist, which she was able to run away in time again. “Why didn’t it work?!” She said nervously as she ran further away from the Abomination to try and cast another spell. “Please work this time… Ice!” She shouted, but once again, nothing was casted. Luz began to panic as the Abomination got closer. “Uh… Lightning! Shield! Light!” Again, nothing happened. “Why isn’t anything working?!” She shouted at the Keyblade. The Abomination walked closer to Luz, who held the Keyblade close to her in fear.

Suddenly, the Keyblade vanished from Luz’s hands and reappeared in Sora’s. The trio looked at the Keyblade in amazement, but Luz was still staring at the Abomination in fear.

“Hey, the Keyblade finally returned to you.” Goody pointed out.

“She held it for quite a long time…” Donald said.

“Except now Luz is defenseless!” Sora ignored them.

“Alright, Luz, time for Plan B!” Eda shouted. Luz didn’t pay attention to what they were saying and kept running away from the Abomination. She ended up against the wall, trembling in fear.

“Come on, human! Stop wasting my time and just give up already!”

Luz looked away in fear as the Abomination walked closer. The Abomination stepped on one of the traps, and a pillar of fire bursted out of the ground, setting the Abomination’s leg on fire. The Abomination stumbled backwards and tried to extinguish the fire on its leg. Eda and the trio began cheering for Luz.

“What the… how did you do that?!” Amity asked, confused.

“I, uh… magic?” Luz shrugged as she stood back up. The flame pillar extinguished and Luz kept running around the arena.

The abomination ran back after Luz and stepped on another trap, this time causing a large gust of wind to appear under Amity and the Abomination, launching them into the air. The Abomination fell on its back, but Amity landed on her feet.

“I saw you that time! You didn’t use your hands! What are you getting at?!” Amity demanded.

“Not dying!” Luz shouted. Amity stared at Luz with hatred, as the Abomination got back up and continued to chase Luz down with reckless abandon. The trio looked on in anticipation.

“I thought you said one or two of those traps would be enough!” Sora whispered.

“I thought so too, but this Abomination is surprisingly resilient…” Eda answered as she continued to study Amity and Lilith.

Luz kept running away from the Abomination, actively trying to lure it into traps now. She lured it into another trap, this time causing a big explosion, knocking Luz on the floor and the Abomination against the wall.

“How are you doing that?!” Amity demanded as she walked closer to Luz, almost setting off another trap.

Luz saw the trap just in time. “Amity, stop! Don’t step any closer!” Luz begged.

Amity stopped walking and looked at the ground in confusion. “Why not, Luz? What happens if I step closer?!” She shouted.

Suddenly, and quite randomly too, King covered in a bunch of con merchandise fell from the stands and landed in between Luz and Amity, directly on the trap. Luz and Amity stared at King in confusion, until spikes suddenly shot out of the ground, nearly impaling Luz and Amity as they backed away towards their mentors. King’s thick layers of merchandise were impaled on the spikes, keeping him from moving.

“Don’t worry, I’m okay!” King said as he struggled to free himself from the spikes.

“Spikes?!” Luz shouted at Eda, baffled. Eda gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

“Don’t you think that’s a bit much?!” Sora asked, frightened.

“No kill like overkill, am I right?” Eda laughed.

“We’re not trying to kill!!” Luz and the trio shouted in disbelief.

“I knew it! You’re cheating!!” Amity confronted them as darkness began to swarm her hands again. Luz and the trio looked nervously at her, but Eda remained skeptical.

“Amity… No, please!” Luz tried to defend herself.

Lilith broke off one of the spikes, which turned back into dirt. She began to laugh. “Oh, Eda. I do believe this means you and your ragtag group of apprentices lose!” She mocked. Eda stared at her with hatred.

“Please understand, it wasn’t my idea to cheat! I tried to stop them, but I had no other choice! I felt awful about having to cheat, I really did!” Luz begged.

“You honestly think anyone would believe a word you’re saying?!” Amity shouted as she began to storm out of the arena. Eda noticed something off about Amity and ran after her.

“Wait just a sec, Miss Protégé!” Eda demanded as she stopped her. She moved her hair covering her neck, revealing a power glyph. She tore it off, causing the Abomination to shrink down to the same size of the Abomination from earlier. The Abomination’s head was not attached to its body, which stayed massive and crushed the small Abomination, reducing it into a puddle. “A power glyph from the Construction Coven! I knew something was wrong when she summoned such a large Abomination!” Eda announced as she held up the glyph. The audience gasped in shock, and Luz and the trio looked at Amity with sorrow.

“Amity… you cheated as well?” Luz said, concerned.

Eda’s eyes widened as “cheated” rang through her ears. She faced Lilith with the biggest smile the trio have ever seen. “Yes. Yes yes yes! You cheated! Perfect, prissy Lilith cheated!!” She cheered hysterically as she got in Lilith’s face. “Hot dang, I love conventions!”

“I only did that because I knew you would cheat!” Lilith tried to defend herself.

“Still cheated! Welcome down to my level!” Eda mocked as she started dancing around the arena.

“But… I didn’t know!” Amity tried to defend herself, genuinely heartbroken. Luz and the trio tried to approach Amity, but she ran away before they could talk to her. The darkness around her hands grew more powerful as she ran out of the arena.

“Amity, wait!” Luz cried out as she began to chase after Amity.

“Luz! Help me!” King called out, still stuck in the spikes. Luz turned around to go help King, but Sora stopped her.

“We’ll get King down, you should go after Amity and talk to her.” Sora insisted. Luz nodded and ran out of the arena. The trio ran over to King and pulled him off of the spikes, ripping his clothes in the process.

“No! My offerings!” King mourned his torn clothes.

“We can get you some more offerings later if you want.” Goofy suggested.

“Right now, you should go and join Luz.” Donald said. King nodded and followed after Luz. The trio made their way over to Eda and Lilith, who are still arguing with each other.

“Will you knock it off already?! You’re making a scene!” Lilith demanded.

“You cheated!” Eda continued to shout. “Hey, where’s the Rhyming Coven? What rhymes with ‘cheated’?” She said into the audience.

“Both of you, please, stop fighting!” Sora tried to break them up.

“I’m being perfectly reasonable! Edalyn’s the one that is being immature and overreacting!” Lilith shouted.

“Overreacting? Are you crazy? This is a perfectly reasonable reaction to have! You finally cheated and ruined your reputation! You’re just like me now!” Eda mocked.

“I am nothing like you!!” Lilith shot back.

“Can we just forget that this duel ever happened?” Sora asked.

“No way! I’ll never let this down now that Lily cheated!” Eda laughed. “Man, this is way better than if you three wiped the floor with your strength.”

“Oh really?! And how were these three going to cheat in order to win?!” Lilith demanded.

“Cheat?! These three don’t need to cheat in order to take down your prissy blue blood; that’s how strong they are! And the best part is I didn’t have to train them at all!” Eda remarked.

“No training?! Then you three aren’t even your real apprentices!!” Lilith shouted.

“No, we are! It’s just… we haven’t started any real training yet…” Sora admitted faintly as he looked at Eda with annoyance.

“So first you place traps around the arena, then attempt to use those who aren’t even your apprentices?! You planned to cheat twice?!” Lilith demanded.

“Yep! But you were too with your protégé having that glyph on for two battles!” Eda pointed out. “Oh man, Lily cheating twice in one day?! Now that’s incredible!!”

“Stop pretending like you have the high ground! You’re just as guilty of cheating as I am!” Lilith shouted.

“I do it all the time, but this is a first for you! I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m glad you four dragged me to this Covenation!” Eda thanked the trio.

“Gawrsh, these two really don’t like each other…” Goofy noted.

“They just keep yelling at each other and don’t let up…” Donald sighed.

“There’s gotta be some way we can get them to stop…” Sora said nervously.

They tried to think of some other way to get them to stop their fighting, but stopped when they noticed the Abomination sludge beginning to move on its own. It began to bubble and expand on the ground, creating an even larger puddle. The Abomination puddle began to shake violently until a giant, beefy arm sprouted out of the goo and slammed on the ground. A second arm sprouted out and slammed on the ground as well. Both arms pushed on the ground, and a massive ball of purple ooze bursted out of the ground with sharp teeth, red eyes, and an Unversed symbol. The trio and the audience gasped in horror, but Eda and Lilith were too busy arguing to notice.

“Uh, Eda?! Lilith?!” Sora called.

“What?!” Eda and Lilith shouted, annoyed they were being interrupted. They finally saw the Abomination monstrosity, and stared in shock.

“What in the Boiling Isles is that monstrosity?!” Lilith shouted in horror.

“Wait a sec…” Eda took a closer look, then noticed the Unversed symbol. “This is one of those ‘Unversed’ things you were talking about!… I hate that I’m starting to know this…” She groaned.

“Yeah, it’s another one of those Lump of Abominations!” Goofy agreed, still calling it by his undoubtedly clever name.

“Amity created the first one, and she must have created this one as well!” Donald shouted.

“This one’s different from last time, though… it actually looks more like an Abomination that would be summoned.” Sora noted.

“We need to get the crowd out of here at once! I’ll summon the guards and—” Lilith began planning, but Eda cut her off.

“No no no, you just sit back, Lily. If these three have taken one down before, they’ll take it down again. It’s time you see what my other apprentices can do!” Eda exclaimed as she put her hand on Sora’s shoulder.

“For the last time, Edalyn, they’re not your apprentices!!” Lilith bursted out. Eda ignored her.

“Alright, you three, I know you already know how to beat this thing, but remember that you’re my apprentices, so you’ve gotta act flashy when fighting.” Eda stated.

“Is it because you’re always flashy when you fight?” Sora asked, confused.

“Exactly!” Eda shouted as she slapped Sora’s back, pushing him closer to the Lump of Abomination. He looked back at Eda with annoyance, then summoned his Keyblade and ran up to the Lump of Abomination. Donald and Goofy summoned their weapons and joined Sora for the battle. Eda laid back against the wall relaxed, but Lilith just stared at Eda and the trio suspiciously.

“What scheme are you planning this time, Edalyn?” Lilith asked, untrusting of their strength.

“I’m not scheming anything this time. Just sit back and witness the power of my apprentices.” Eda smiled mischievously. Lilith tried to yell back at Eda, but she walked away before she could. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go find someone from the Rhyming Coven!” Lilith didn’t trust Eda and the trio, but stayed back ready to intervene if something went wrong.

“So how exactly do we act flashy while fighting this Lump of Abomination?” Goofy asked.

“It won’t be hard, Sora does it all the time…” Donald rolled his eyes.

“Doing combos with each other will definitely work.” Sora pointed out. The Lump of Abomination began to crawl towards the trio. “Alright, let’s [take this Unversed down again!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeYYv027BWw)”

The Lump of Abomination charged at the trio, but they dodged out of the way. They expected it to slam against the wall, but instead it slammed one of its arms into the ground and turned around to charge at the trio again. They barely managed to dodge this time, and the Lump of Abomination stopped charging. This time, it opened its mouth and shot out a giant purple fireball, catching the trio completely off guard. They quickly hid behind Goofy’s shield and struggled to block the fireball, but were able to break through and disperse the fireball.

“It can use fire now?!” The trio shouted, completely shocked.

They knew now that this fight would be much tougher than last time and had to be more careful. They split up and charged at the Lump of Abomination from different angles so it couldn’t attack them all at once again. Sora charged up the center, while Donald and Goofy attacked from the sides. The Lump of Abomination shot another fireball at Sora, but because he was now ready for it, he was able to avoid it easily and slash at the Lump of Abomination. It tried to bite Sora, but he stuck his Keyblade in his mouth and prevented it from biting down. The Lump of Abomination tried to crush Donald and Goofy with its arms, but Goofy blocked it with his shield and Donald cast Blizzard and froze its arm, preventing it from moving. Vulnerable, the trio attacked it with all their might before it roared and pushed them back. The Lump of Abomination liquified its arms and stuck them into the ground, causing multiple arms to sprout out of the ground. The hands opened up and smaller purple fireballs appeared in them as they began throwing them at the trio. They reflected the fireballs back at the hands and the Lump of Abomination, irritating it and making the hands smaller by losing some of its ooze. Desperate, the hands all threw fireballs in front of the Lump of Abomination and it shot another fireball from its mouth, merging them together and heading towards the trio. Goofy stopped the fireball in its tracks and knocked it into the air. Donald cast Blizzard and the fireball, freezing it into a giant ball of ice. Sora jumped into the air and slammed against it with his Keyblade, sending it flying into the Lump of Abomination, crushing it and reducing it and the hands to ooze. The crowd began to cheer and Lilith stared at the trio, surprised by their strength.

Their victory was short lived as the ooze began to pulsate again and gathered at the center of the arena, as they expected. The Lump of Abomination rose out of the ground with a long, thin base and sharp wings, allowing it to be taller than the walls of the arena. It roared as it spread its wings, launching small globs of goo across the arena, which once they landed, sprouted up as dozens of arms. The arms that were close to the trio caught on fire and tried to either grab the trio or slam into them, while the arms that were far away continued to hurl a volley of fireballs. The trio dodged the fireballs and fought back against the hands as best they could, but they ended up getting hit a couple of times. They knew they stood no chance against the main body with so many projectiles being thrown, so they had to take care of the hands first. Goofy blocked the fireballs as best he could on his own while Sora and Donald stood back to back with their weapons pointed in the air. They twirled their weapons in front of them, surrounding them with fireworks as the ends of their weapons caught on fire. They spun around each other, lighting the fireworks and sending them towards the hands. The fireworks exploded as soon as they came in contact with the hands because of their fire, destroying the hands.

With the body exposed, Sora jumped on top of Goofy’s shield and they both jumped into the air. Sora grabbed onto Goofy’s shield and prepared to throw Goofy into the Lump of Abomination, but it spread its wings, ready to knock them out of the air by a gust of wind. Donald quickly cast Thunder on the Lump of Abomination’s wings, destroying them as it roared out in pain. With the body completely defenseless, Sora threw Goofy into the mouth of the Lump of Abomination, spinning with his shield over his head. The base was moving spastically as Goofy dove deeper into the Lump of Abomination until he hit the ground, causing a shockwave and destroying the base. The body fell to the ground and dispersed into a pile of ooze again, with Goofy standing in the center, covered in sludge. He calmly walked his way back to Sora and Donald, who all shared a high-five.

The sludge on Goofy dripped off of him and grouped up with the rest of the ooze, and the Lump of Abomination rose once again.

“Gawrsh, this thing doesn’t want to stay down!” Goofy complained.

“What did it take to beat this thing last time?!” Donald shouted.

“This thing was created by Amity’s hatred, so it’s up to Luz to calm her down. We just have to last however long that takes…” Sora sighed as he prepared to fight again.

The Lump of Abomination tried charging at the group multiple times again, but they were able to dodge it flawlessly this time. Enraged, it created more arms that were engulfed in fire and tried to grab the trio, but they were able to fend them off without getting grabbed. Desperate, the Lump of Abomination stuck its own arms in its mouth and breathed a fireball, lighting its own beefy arms on fire. It slammed them on the ground, causing pillars of fire to rise out of the ground. The trio barely dodged the pillars and were split up again. The Lump of Abomination wrapped its arms around its body and threw its arms back out, shooting out a wave of fire. Sora jumped over the wave while Donald and Goofy slid underneath it. Donald cast Water on Goofy’s shield as he threw it at the Lump of Abomination’s arms, extinguishing the fire and cutting off the arms. When the arms landed on the ground, they began to steam and disappear.

“Luz did it! She quelled Amity’s anger!” Sora said happily. “Alright, it’s time to finish you off!” The air around Sora shattered as he changed back into his belt-clad outfit and jumped back into the air. He threw his Keyblade to the side as it began to swirl around him as two balls, one red and one blue, began circling around Sora opposite from each other. He was surrounded by a blue sphere that had a strange ripple effect as everything swirled around Sora. It was creating a very strong pull, which slowly tore the Lump of Abomination apart as it got drawn into Sora, creating a ring of Abomination goo that swirled around him as well. Sora finally grabbed his Keyblade and thrusted it into the air, causing the sphere to burst, spreading the Abomination goo all over the arena floor and walls, which began to steam and disappear as well. The Unversed emblem shattered and disappeared into a cloud of black smoke, disappearing for good.

The crowd stared at the trio in silence before they started cheering for them. The trio posed heroically as the crowd continued to cheer. Eda jumped down from somewhere in the stands with a piece of paper in her hand and put her other hand on Sora’s shoulder with pride. Lilith stared at the trio in disbelief as she slowly approached them.

“You… what are you three?” Lilith asked, greatly confused.

“These three are my apprentices. That fight was cheat-free; that was the true strength of my apprentices! Ready to rethink who won this Witch’s Duel?” Eda said confidently. The crowd began to cheer Eda’s name, believing she deserved to win the duel. Lilith’s confusion immediately vanished and turned back into rage.

“Will you stop it already?! Those three are not your apprentices!!” Lilith shouted.

“Uh, yes they are. They work for me, isn’t that right?” Eda asked the trio.

“We are, we just… haven't done any real training yet…” Sora admitted. Donald and Goofy nodded their heads in agreement.

“You’re just going in circles! You’re not proving any point! Stop acting like a child!!” Lilith said, enraged.

“You’re the one acting like a child because you cheated! Just admit it, you were defeated! There’s no reason to get so heated! Go and get your stank face treated!” Eda mocked as she looked at the piece of paper for rhymes.

“Rhyme one more thing, I dare you!!” Lilith threatened.

“We really should get going and find Luz and King, Eda.” Sora insisted.

“Alright, alright, I’m done. It’s about time we leave.” Eda admitted as she started to walk away. The trio followed her out of the arena, but she turned around and faced Lilith again. “Because my rhymes are depleted!” She shouted as she crumpled up the piece of paper and dropped it on the floor.

“That’s it!!” Lilith shouted as she summoned her staff. She twirled it in front of her, causing a pillar of blue fire to shoot out towards Eda. It hit her dead-on, knocking her against the wall. The audience stopped cheering entirely.

“Eda!!” The trio cried out. They turned around and summoned their weapons, ready to fight Lilith.

“There she is!” Eda smiled as she got back up. “You three stay out of this; this is between us!” She yelled as she summoned her staff. The trio looked at Eda with concern, but unsummoned their weapons and moved out of the way, trusting she would take down Lilith.

Eda spun her staff in front of her, but dropped it on the ground and clumsily picked it back up. The trio immediately lost faith in her, until she created her own pillar of orange fire, colliding with Lilith’s. The two witches struggled as their pillars of fire fought against each other, until they combined into an explosion, pushing them both back and dispelling their magic circles.

Eda created a circle and slammed her staff on the ground, breaking into smaller circles that all shot out bolts of fire. Lilith spun her staff in front of her, deflecting the bolts of fire while creating her own magic circle. She then shot out another pillar of fire towards Eda, but she was ready for it this time. She drew a large circle on the ground, causing a giant owl face extended out of the ground and tried to ram into Lilith. She drew a small circle that caused her to teleport away in a puff of flames and reappear, dodging the owl face. It crashed into the wall, causing the audience to panic and flee the stands. Eda began drawing circles on the extended owl face, creating more owl faces to extend out and chase after Lilith. She continued to teleport around the owl faces, destroying them in the process before finally teleporting in the air and setting her staff on fire and throwing it at Eda. She created a barrier in front of her, blocking Lilith’s staff and pushing back against Lilith as she charged at Eda. As Lilith struggled to break through Eda’s barrier, Owlbert flew off Eda’s staff and smacked Lilith in the face, stopping her onslaught. Owlbert grabbed onto Lilith’s hair and pulled her away from Eda, struggling to get rid of Owlbert.

“Say goodnight, sister!” Eda shouted as she stabbed her staff into the giant owl face. Another owl face appeared and charged towards the distracted Lilith. Owlbert let go of Lilith’s hair and returned to Eda’s shoulder as the owl face swallowed Lilith. The arena fell silent as the fight came to an end as Eda stared confidently at where Lilith used to be. The trio ran over to Eda, completely amazed by her power and skills.

“That was an incredible magic battle, Eda!” Donald shouted, captivated by the spells.

“You did a great job too, Owlbert!” Goofy complimented. Owlbert hooted happily as he returned to Eda’s staff.

“Sorry we ended up dragging you into this mess…” Sora apologized.

“Don’t be! Not only did ‘Perfect Lily’ cheat, but I put her in her place! Best Covenation ever!” Eda sighed happily. “Alright, it’s time we find Luz and King and finally get out of here. I think I’ve had enough fun for one day.” She said as she began to walk away. The trio were going to follow her, but stopped when they noticed something wrong with the owl face that swallowed Lilith. There was a hole burning through the side of the owl face.

Suddenly, Lilith teleported past the trio and appeared behind Eda. “Enough of this!!” She shouted as she swung her staff at Eda, unaware. Sora quickly summoned his Keyblade and jumped in front of Lilith, colliding with her flaming staff just before she struck Eda. She finally noticed Sora and Lilith’s clash and jumped back, readying her staff again. Sora and Lilith pushed each other back, sliding across the ground and got back into a fighting stance. Donald and Goofy summoned their weapons and stood by Sora’s side, ready to fight as well. Eda ran up to join them, but the trio stopped them.

“We’ll hold off Lilith for you!” Donald ordered.

“Yeah, you just go find Luz and King and get out of here!” Goofy agreed.

“Got it. You three better not lose to her!” Eda smiled.

“If we win, can we finally begin some training?” Sora asked.

“Don’t push your luck, kid.” Eda laughed. “It’s been fun, Lily, but let’s call it a draw!” She shouted as she ran out of the arena.

“Why? Why would you three side with such an insufferable witch who does nothing that lies, steals, and cheats?! She’s a criminal, so why do you choose to stand by her side?!” Lilith demanded.

“Eda’s not just some criminal; she’s our friend!” Donald answered.

“Besides, Miss Eda’s under a very powerful curse and we want to help her out!” Goofy added.

“We’re going to help break Eda’s curse once and for all, and there’s nothing you can do to stop us from helping our friend in need!” Sora shouted.

Lilith looked down at the ground and tightened her grip on her staff. “…Fine then… [You three are criminals as well!!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsPKNLbXwAs)” Lilith cried out as she slammed her staff on the ground. A giant flaming raven rose into the air and glided along the ground of the arena, trying to ram into the trio and set them on fire. Sora charged toward the flaming raven and slid along the ground, just barely fitting underneath the raven. He delivered two quick slashes across the chest followed by a stab, stopping it from flying forward. He leaped into the air and delivered a rising slash, knocking the flaming raven into the air. Sora landed on the ground in a heroic pose as the flaming raven crashed on the ground behind him, setting the ground on fire. When he turned around, he saw Lilith protecting herself from the fire in a force field, which she dispersed and put out the fire. She charged toward with her staff on fire, but Goofy jumped in front of him and blocked Lilith’s charge. Goofy tried to attack Lilith with his shield, but Lilith easily dodged his shield and slammed against it with her staff, knocking him back against the wall. Donald tried to cast Blizzard and freeze Lilith, but she spun her staff, causing a pillar of fire to shoot out that easily melted the Blizzard. Donald cast Reflect on himself, which protected him from the flame pillar, but Lilith charged forward and slammed against the barrier with her staff, shattering it and knocking Donald back against the wall. Sora ran up to Lilith and they began slashing at each other, blocking each other’s attacks and occasionally trading blows against each other. Their weapons clashed against each other as they struggled to push each other back, emanating light and blue fire. Donald got back up and cast Water at their clash, which put out the fire on Lilith’s staff. Goofy got back up and tossed his shield at Lilith’s face, who barely dodged it by allowing Sora to win their struggle, but left her vulnerable for Sora to attack. He grabbed onto Lilith’s staff and slashed at her before unsummoning it and grabbing onto her staff with both hands. He spun the staff around him, twirling Lilith with it, forcing her to let go. When she landed on the ground, she looked at Sora with shock as he held his Keyblade in one hand and her staff in the other, twirling it behind him with the top engulfed in fire.

Sora spun his Keyblade and Lilith’s staff around both sides of his body before slamming them on the ground, causing pillars of light and fire to burst out of the ground toward Lilith. She drew a magic circle and stuck her arm through it, allowing her to teleport away from the pillars. She drew another circle and shot out a fireball from it, but Sora easily slashed through it with his Keyblade. He twirled the staff and scraped it along the ground, shooting fireballs out of the ground made of rubble towards Lilith, but dodged them by teleporting again, this time closer to Sora. He closed the distance and began swinging with both weapons. Lilith quickly drew two circles, creating small barriers around her arms which she used to block some of his attacks, but eventually was knocked back being unable to keep up.

Donald and Goofy regrouped with Sora, and continued attacking from afar with Lilith’s staff. Sora set Goofy’s shield on fire with the staff and threw it at Lilith multiple times, while Donald cast fire spells that were enhanced by the fire from Lilith’s staff. However, every time Sora cast magic through Lilith’s staff, the flame drew dimmer and dimmer until it extinguished, leaving Sora exhausted. He stabbed his Keyblade into the ground and pulled out an Ether from one of his pockets and threw it into the air. It disintegrated into small blue particles that were absorbed into his chest, refreshing Sora and reigniting the fire on Lilith’s staff. With Sora’s magic restored, they continued casting magic at Lilith. Enraged, Lilith teleported behind Sora and grabbed her staff, taking it back from Sora. She spun around and tried to strike him in the back, but Sora reacted in time. He placed his empty hand on the ground and slid behind Lilith, dodging her staff. He stuck his Keyblade into the ground and spun around the top of it. Lilith tried to block, but Sora kicked her staff out of the way. Then, he stopped spinning and brought his Keyblade out of the ground, performing a rising slash and knocking her back.

Lilith got back up and spun her staff behind her, creating a force field that completely protected her back. Sora ran up to her and began attacking her again, but the force field moved in front of her, blocking Sora’s attacks. The barrier then moved out of the way as Lilith attacked Sora with her staff, landing multiple hits as Sora recoiled every time he attacked the barrier. The barrier finally moved in front of her and stabbed it with her staff, thrusting it forward and knocking Sora back. Donald and Goofy tried to attack Lilith as well, but were unsuccessful in getting through her barrier. Goofy recoiled when he attacked the barrier with his shield, leaving him wide open for Lilith to attack him. Donald tried to cast Blizzard and Thunder, but the barrier blocked them all with no visible damage to the barrier, rendering him defenseless as Lilith attacked him as well.

The trio regrouped, knowing that they didn’t stand a chance with the barrier in the way and had to destroy it. Sora and Donald stood behind Goofy and his shield, forming Trinity Guard. They charged at Lilith with full speed, Goofy’s shield clashing with Lilith’s force field, both struggling with all their strength. Sora and Donald jumped into the air, with Goofy still charging at Lilith’s shield, and raised their weapons into the air, summoning meteors around them. They pointed their weapons at Lilith, and the meteors rained down on her, which clashed with Lilith’s force field as well. The force field cracked as it strained to fight back against Goofy’s shield and the meteors. Donald stayed in the air to continue having the meteors clash with the force field while Sora ran to the wall and began running up it with Flowmotion. He jumped off the wall at its peak and began skydiving towards Lilith and struck the force field with all his might. With their combined powers, they shattered the force field and attacked Lilith all at once, knocking Lilith onto the ground, badly injured.

“No… how… how could I… the leader of the Emperor’s Coven… lose to a weak knight, a fake witch, and a human with a key?! All ‘trained’ by Edalyn… this can’t be happening…” Lilith struggled to shout. She tried to stand back up with her staff, but dropped it and fell on the floor in pain.

“We’re just that powerful, and we’ll only get more powerful once we train with Eda!” Donald mocked.

“Do ya really hate Miss Eda, your own sister, that much?” Goofy asked, worried.

“If you really were Eda’s sister, you would care about helping her stop the curse.” Sora said harshly. Lilith’s eyes widened and covered her mouth when he said that. “Come on, let’s get out of here. We’re done here.” They walked out of the arena without looking back at Lilith. They couldn’t see, but Lilith began to cry and slammed her fist on the ground.

The trio made their way back outside to the vendors, but it was completely empty. The vendors were all gone and no one else was in sight. When they exited the building, they couldn’t find anyone else nearby. The Covenation was completely abandoned when the last fight broke out. Injured from their fight against Lilith, they cast Cure, healing their wounds. Sora then pulled out his map and they began following it out of the city and back home. The sun began to set when they finally made it back to The Owl House.

“There you three are! Hoot!” Hooty greeted them when they got closer. “I heard all about this year’s Covenation! Eda usually hates them, but it sounded like this one was incredibly fun! I can’t wait to hear what actually happened this year!” He said in anticipation as he opened the door for them. When they entered, they saw Luz pacing nervously across the room, while Eda was sitting on the couch and King was sitting in a bag. They all looked up and smiled when they saw the trio enter.

“There you three are!” Luz said as she hugged the trio. “I tried to enter the arena again after talking to Amity, but so many people came running out that I couldn’t get through. Then Eda came out and said you were fighting Lilith! I was getting worried that you three wouldn’t come back!”

“Eh, I wasn’t worried at all. I knew these three would take care of her, no problem.” Eda said nonchalantly as she got off the couch and rustled Sora’s hair. “Man, best Covenation ever!”

“Yeah, and I got the best offering of all!” King said as he got comfortable in the bag again.

“So what happened between you and Amity?” Sora asked, worried.

“She saw my light spell, and I guess it was enough to convince her. She said I wasn’t a witch, but she still broke the everlasting oath.” Luz explained.

“Some ‘everlasting’ oath…” Donald grumbled.

“It’s great that you can keep doing magic and training to become a witch.” Sora sighed in relief.

“Yeah, but I’m still worried about Amity…” Luz admitted as she looked at her hand.

“Well, I’ve had enough for one day.” Eda yawned. “I’m sure you’ve all had enough excitement as well.”

“Yeah, I’m beat…” Luz agreed as she yawned as well. “I’m gonna call it for today. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She waved goodbye as she made her way to the stairs.

“Luz, wait! Carry me up with you!” King insisted. Luz picked up the bag and made her way upstairs. Eda began to follow them, but were stopped by Sora.

“Eda, can we please start some sort of training?” Sora asked, irritated.

“Alright, alright, fine. You three have definitely proven your strength by taking down Lilith. I think it’s time we start some actual training. Just… not today, okay?” Eda yawned again. “But sheesh, if you took her down while weakened, can’t wait to see how badly you’ll wipe the floor with her when you’re actually powerful again.” She laughed as she made her way to the stairs.

“Uh, thanks…? Eda, wait. Why do you hate Lilith so much?” Sora asked. “I know you’re all about freedom, and she’s all about keeping order, but…is that all there is to it? Weren’t you two close together at all when you were younger?”

“…Look, we both chose our own paths, and we’re both happy with our choices.” Eda said with a faint smile, but quickly vanished as she walked up the stairs.

“That’s exactly what I’m worried about…” Sora sighed. The trio sat on the couch and quickly drifted off to sleep after an exhausting battle, but Sora was more worried about Eda than ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: I hope you enjoyed another chapter! I put a lot of effort into researching various techniques for these fights, so I hope they flowed well. It was a bit difficult to write the trio fitting in with the Witch’s Duel because of the everlasting oath, but once the battles started, everything went much smoother. I had a lot of fun writing the dialogue between Eda and Lilith, and I hope it was funny to everyone else. I tried to add a hyperlink at the beginning of the final fight against Lilith with a song from Kingdom Hearts to help with immersion, but sadly it didn’t work. This chapter is coming out a bit late, but I ended up taking some time off to celebrate Halloween. I hope everyone else had a nice Halloween as well! By the time I write the next chapter, college will be over and I will be back home! While I’m home, I plan to go back through each chapter and create a list of Kingdom Hearts references, whether it be dialogue or attacks. Once again, thank you all for the continued support, and I look forward to seeing you in the next chapter!


	8. The Heartless House

Days have past since their battle against Lilith at the Covenation. While Eda quickly shook off their encounter with Lilith, Sora couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong between the two sisters. He knew asking Eda would lead to nowhere, so he tried to keep his worries hidden as best he could. Luz continued to create light glyphs, more passionate than ever, thanks to her talk with Amity. She walked down the stairs with multiple light glyphs in her hand and walked up to the trio, which were still sleeping on the couch at the time. She activated some light glyphs, creating multiple balls of light that floated above them. The trio stayed asleep as more balls of light floated over them as Luz in front of the side of the chair. When the trio eventually woke up, those were the first things they saw. They looked around and saw Luz, waving at them and smiling.

“Morning, you three!” Luz happily greeted them. 

“Morning, Luz!” The trio greeted as they got off the couch.

“These didn’t wake you up, did they?” Luz asked, slightly nervous.

“No, they didn’t at all.” Goofy reassured her, even though the room got much brighter with them around.

“It was actually really nice to wake up and see them above my head.” Donald said as he looked back up at the ceiling.

“It reminded me of the starry nights back on Destiny Island…” Sora said in fascination as he reached up to grab one of the balls of light, accidentally popping it in the process.

“Do you… do you three also think I’ll be a true witch as well?” Luz asked nervously, staring up at the balls of light.

“Of course we do! You’re already making spells! You’ll be a great witch in no time!” Goofy said happily.

“Eda told us about your worry, and she’s right. There’s more than one way to be a witch. You can’t let how they view what a witch is discourage you.” Donald agreed.

“Eda’s right: you’ve gotta be your own witch. I mean, I’m a self-taught Keyblade wielder, and the way I fight is completely different from everyone else I know. You’ll find out what works best for you, and you can’t let anyone try to convince you that you’re doing it wrong.” Sora said as he placed his hand on Luz’s shoulder.

“Thanks. It always helps to hear your constant support.” Luz smiled.

They heard footsteps coming from the stairs, and turned around to see Eda walking into the room with King lying on her shoulder.

“You seriously still on about that?” Eda asked as she ruffled Luz’s hair. “Remember, you’re my apprentice. I’ll make sure you’re a great and powerful witch, regardless of what those loser Coven members think.”

“Yeah! I’ll teach you all about summoning powerful demons that are under your control, and then those fools will rue the day they doubted you!” King laughed maniacally, but ended up being really cute. Everyone else began to laugh as well.

“See, Luz, we’ve got your back. Now stop thinking about what you  _ should _ be and start thinking about what you  _ can _ be.” Eda said happily.

“Um… Eda… about being your apprentice…” Sora said nervously, but what cut off when Eda sighed heavily.

“Alright, alright, fine. A promise is a promise. I guess the time has finally come…” Eda dreaded. “But you’re gonna have to wait until I’ve had my apple blood.”

“Yeah, I’m starving! The King of Demons demands his feast!” King shouted. Eda simply flicked his nose. “Sorry… please make breakfast…” He apologized.

“Oh, another magical battle! I can’t wait to see what spells you two do!” Luz said eagerly.

“I mean, it’s not going to be a fight, it’s just some training.” Sora pointed out.

“So? It’s still awesome to see you two do more magic! Who knows, maybe I’ll get inspired by your spells!” Luz said.

They made their way to the kitchen and began eating. Eda sat on the table as she drank from her mug, while everyone else actually sat in the chairs and ate the food. To everyone’s shock, the trio actually ate a meal! They admitted that it was better than they expected and even thought about eating more often. Luz, King, and Eda stared at the trio, absolutely baffled by their remarks, but shrugged it off so long as they began to act slightly more normal.

Once they finished eating, they made their way outside to begin Sora’s training. As usual, Eda rounded the corner first, giving her time to snap her fingers and change her clothes. Once outside, Luz, King, Donald, and Goofy sat in front of Hooty, eager to watch the battle unfold, while Eda and Sora stood across from each other in front of the spectators. Eda reached out her arm to call for her staff, which eventually shot out of Hooty’s mouth as he opened it for the staff to fly though.

“Alright, kid, what’re we gonna start with?” Eda asked as she caught her staff.

“Uh…” Sora stared blankly at his hand. “I’ll be honest, I’m not really sure what to do. I just feel… weaker. I don’t even know where to begin…”

“Seriously?! You continuously irritate me about wanting to train, then have the audacity to not come up with a training plan when we finally do?!” Eda shouted.

“I… I really should’ve thought this through… I’m sorry for wasting your time…” Sora apologized as he looked down at the ground, ashamed.

Eda looked at Sora’s disappointment and began to feel bad. “Look, this is definitely your fault, but I know that was a bit too far.” She admitted.

“So… what do we do about it now?” Sora asked, afraid of being rejected.

“Well, you clearly don’t know what you need help with. But at the same time you’ve got an audience and desperately need help learning what you need to work on…” Eda contemplated. She finally sighed and looked at Sora. “Alright, how about this: just this once, go all out against me. That way, you’ll have a better understanding of what you need to work on and can actually make a plan for if we continue this mess of a training.” She offered.

“That sounds like a good plan…” Sora agreed. “But… I also don’t want to hurt you in the process.”

“Trust me, kid, you won’t hurt me at all.” Eda reassured him. “So, what do ya think?”

“Well, if you’re okay with it, then I am as well!” Sora agreed as he summoned his Keyblade.

“Just hurry up and get to the bloodshed!” King shouted, getting impatient.

“Another epic fight between witches!!” Luz shouted giddily. “Y ahora, las dos brujas se enfrentan con todas sus fuerzas. ¡Que empiece la batalla!” Everyone stared at Luz, completely unaware of what she just said, but she simply smiled and motioned them to begin fighting. Eda and Sora shrugged and got into their fighting stance, ready for their no-holds barred battle.

Sora started by twirling his Keyblade and casting Fire at Eda, but she simply batted it back at him with her staff like it was a baseball. Sora dodged out of the way and cast Blizzard towards her, creating an ice trail behind the spell which he hopped on with Flowmotion. Eda drew a magic circle in front of her and a pillar of fire shot out, easily melting the Blizzard spell and its ice trail. Sora quickly cast Aero underneath the ice trail, launching him into the air just before the fire pillar consumed him. He began skydiving towards Eda, who twirled her staff in front of her and created a barrier. The two of them clashed and Sora struggled to break through the barrier. Once again, Owlbert flew off of Eda’s staff and tried to attack Sora, but he did a kickflip off of the barrier. Owlbert continued to try and peck at Sora, but because he didn’t want to hurt him, he cast Magnet off to the side. The pull wasn’t strong enough to affect Eda, but it was able to pull Owlbert off to the side, leaving him spinning in the air harmlessly. Sora then cast multiple Thunders, causing lightning bolts to strike Eda from above. However, Eda simply dispelled her barrier and raised her staff above her, which intercepted the lightning bolts and surged in her staff. She then spun it around making another circle and stuck her staff through it, and the lightning surged out of her staff, combined and amplified by other lightning from the spell circle. Sora cast Reflect around him, but the spell was so powerful that the barrier began to crack and break. Sora rolled just as the barrier was destroyed, barely dodging the powerful lightning bolts.

Eda slammed her staff on the ground, causing multiple spikes to rise all over the place. Sora just barely dodged them as they shot up around him, with one of them appearing inches in front of his face. He took his Keyblade and hooked onto the spike as he began to spin around it, suspended in the air. Eda drew another circle with her staff and slammed it into the ground, this time causing the spikes to blow up one by one. Sora launched himself off the spike, hopping from one spike to the next before it blew up, closing the gap between him and Eda until he had a clear path and headed straight for her. Eda held up her staff to try and block whatever Sora was about to do, but he stopped right in front of her, kicking off the air in front of her and shattering it like glass. Sora flipped in the air and slammed his Keyblade into the ground, causing a small shockwave to burst out around it, but it was fairly slow and Eda simply jumped out of the shockwave’s range. He then charged towards Eda, and the two of them began attacking and blocking with their weapons, but neither of them were able to land any hits on each other. Sora purposefully missed one of his swings and slammed his Keyblade onto the ground, but nothing happened. Confused, he jumped back before Eda could retaliate and concentrated as he held out his Keyblade, but once again nothing ended up happening. Sora looked at his Keyblade, confused and worried about why nothing was happening. Eda drew a circle on the ground and stabbed it with her staff, causing an owl face to extend out of the ground. The face squirmed all over the place to try and ram Sora, but he was able to dodge out of the way. Just as the owl face tried to ram into Sora head-on, he spun his Keyblade in front of himself and charged towards it, quickly cutting across its entire body and stopping right in front of Eda in a heroic pose, startling her. She jumped back and pointed her staff at him, but Sora didn’t move and the owl face was still intact. When he opened his eyes, slash lines made out of light appeared on the owl face and it fell apart in pieces. Sora tried to get back in his fighting stance, but Eda simply smacked him on the head with her staff, knocking him to the ground.

“Ow…” Sora said quietly as he rubbed his head. Luz, King, Donald, and Goofy began to laugh.

“Well, that was almost impressive…” Eda said as she offered her hand to Sora. “But sheesh, you really  _ are _ flashy. Anyway, got a better idea on what you need to work on?”

“Yeah, that definitely helped.” Sora said as he grabbed Eda’s hand and got off the ground. “I could feel my Flowmotion was slower than normal, my elemental spells are far less powerful than they used to be, and I couldn’t even call forth some of my more powerful spells with my Keyblade. I’ve lost a lot more than I thought…”

“Yeah, you were definitely stuttering a bit during that sparring match.” Eda agreed. “Well, now that you know what you need to work on, you can start thinking of ways to specifically train those individual skills.”

“I think that’s enough training for today. I’ll start thinking of some exercises for later.” Sora admitted as he walked back over to the group.

“We’ll help out with your training as well!” Goofy said happily.

“Maybe we can learn something from them as well.” Donald said, slightly megalomaniac.

“It’ll be so cool to watch both of you do awesome spells together! Maybe I can record them and make a training montage!!” Luz gasped.

“Yeah, can’t wait to see a montage of you failing like that over and over again!” King said maniacally.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, you’ve got work to do, and I’ve got a game to play.” Eda said as she pulled out a stack of cards from her hair.

“Really? More Hexes Hold’em? You play that way too much…” King sighed.

“We always see you with those cards when we get back from making deliveries.” Donald said.

“What kinda game is this ‘Hexes Hold’em’?” Goofy asked, curiously.

“It’s a game of cards! You know, the paper rectangles that old people think are fun!” Luz noted. “How’s it work?”

“Alright, one game won’t hurt before you start working.” Eda said as they entered the house and sat on the couch. She set up the cards on the table as the group gathered around her. “Which one of you two are ready to lose again?” She asked King and Owlbert. King furiously shook his head, while Owlbert hooted disappointedly and landed on the table opposite of Eda.

“Watch closely, you four. Hexes Hold’em is the most tricky game on the Boiling Isles. Any proper witch knows how to play.” Eda stated. She and Owlbert began drawing cards and placing them on the table. The trio walked back and forth between Eda and Owlbert, looking at the cards in their hands and the cards on the table while trying to understand what was happening, Luz watched the cards eagerly, and King stared at the table unenthusiastically. Once Eda placed the last card on the table, the cards came to life and began fighting each other. Owlbert’s cards began to push back against Eda’s cards, but she wasn’t worried about it. “Now, when it looks like the deck is stacked against you, that’s when you break out the wildcard!” Eda stated as she held up another card from her hand. Suddenly, Owlbert’s cards burst into flames, and “Winner: Eda” appeared out of the ashes.

“Woo, I win! In your adorable owl face!” Eda mocked. Owlbert hooted angrily at Eda.

“Wow, that was actually a really exciting card game!” Luz said, intrigued.

“Trust me, that excitement goes away very quickly…” King said, bored.

“I have absolutely no idea how this game works…” Donald sighed, thoroughly confused.

“Maybe we can ask Miss Eda for the instructions for Hexes Hold’em.” Goofy offered.

“I think I’ll pass. I don’t know why, but I don’t really like playing card games…” Sora admitted.

“Ah, I love the feeling of victory! It feels… fluffy?” Eda questioned. Everyone turned towards Eda, confused by her statement, but stared in horror when she saw that feathers began to grow on her arms.

“Uh, Eda? It’s happening again!” Luz warned.

“What’s happening again?” Eda asked.

“Your curse is returning!” King pointed out. Eda looked at her arms and yelled when she saw her feathers. She quickly grabbed her cards and ran back upstairs as everyone else frantically followed her. She ran into her room, placed her cards on the floor, and unlocked a chest, revealing nothing but empty bottles. “Oh boy… this is terrible. I’m out of elixirs…” Eda sighed as she dropped one of the bottles, shattering it on the ground.

“What?! But… there has to be something we can do to prevent it!” Sora panicked.

“Yeah, last time this happened, you turned into this thing!” Luz agreed as she held up her phone, showing the picture of Owl Eda almost biting them. Sora held up his Gummiphone as well, showing the picture of Sora posing in front of Owl Eda slicing at them with her claws.

“I know I should be repulsed, but that look is fierce! Unlike you, Sora, you just look like an idiot.” Eda complimented herself. Luz and Eda stared at her, both worried and infuriated by her not taking her curse seriously. “You’re right, you’re right, we need to take care of this. We’ll need to head to the market.” She stated.

“Market time! And finally not for work!” Luz cheered happily.

“I’m stealing everything that’s not nailed down!” King happily threatened.

“We’d better hurry. It’ll be even worse if Eda transforms in the middle of a crowd…” Sora worried. They all made their way towards the door, taking some of Eda’s cards as they passed her.

“Before we go, would anyone like to play one more hand of Hexes Hold’em?” Eda offered. She went to grab her cards, but stopped when she couldn’t find them. “Hey, where are my cards?”

Everyone handed over their cards to Owlbert. “Take these and fly ahead. She’ll have to follow us now.” Luz whispered to Owlbert. He took the cards and flew out of the room as Eda realized what was happening.

“Owlbert, you sore loser! Gimme back my cards!!” Eda shouted as she ran after Owlbert. King and the trio followed them as Eda chased Owlbert outside of the house, while Luz grabbed the rest of Eda’s staff. When she exited the house, Eda was flipping through her cards

“Honestly, Owlbert, out of all the times I’ve beaten you, you’ve never been this bad of a sore loser.” Eda scolded. Owlbert hooted angrily at her.

“Eda, please! Take this seriously!” Sora begged.

“If your curse gets out of hand, we won’t know where to get more elixirs! You might get stuck like that forever!” Donald shouted.

“Just put the cards away for once. I don’t wanna get eaten by you again.” King said irritated.

“If you get cursed, you won’t be able to play your game anymore.” Goofy tried to guilt trip her.

“Alright, alright, fine! I get it. Take care of the curse, I know.” Eda sighed as she stuffed the cards back in her hair. Luz walked over and handed Eda the rest of her staff as Owlbert landed back on the end. “Thanks, kid. Now let’s hurry up and get more elixirs. Then, you’re all going down in Hexes Hold’em!” Everyone sighed as they got on the staff and flew into Bonesborough.

They landed in front of a small store called “Mr. Elixir” that was locked up with a metal gate. Luz, King, and the trio walked away from Eda, who seemed to have everything under control now that she wasn’t playing Hexes Hold’em anymore. They sat on a nearby bench and waited for Eda to finish.

“Hey, open up, Morton!” they could hear Eda shout and bang against the gate.

“Are we sure we can trust this shop? What if it’s not open?” Sora worried.

“Now that Eda’s put down the cards, she’s actually focused on her curse.” King reassured them. “Besides, Morton always delivers, mostly because he’s too afraid to turn her down.

“Why don’t you try watching the crowd to relax? It doesn’t get much better than people watching in the Demon Realm.” Luz suggested.

“People watching? Most of the time, they’re watching us.” Donald admitted.

“Isn’t it a bit rude, staring at people when they’re just minding their own business?” Goofy asked.

“Not if you don’t draw too much attention to yourselves. Who am I kidding, you three’ll do that anyways…” King sighed.

“Just sit back and try to relax. You’ve been very worried recently, so you’ve gotta try and ease up a bit.” Luz insisted.

“I guess we can give it a try…” Sora said. Together, they watched multiple people walk around town. They made comments about some of the people that passed them and laughed among themselves, having fun just watching the strange inhabitants of the world do their daily routines. They occasionally heard Eda yelling and banging on the shutter, which made them laugh even more.

Suddenly, the people in the street scattered to the edge of the roads. The trio leapt off the bench, expecting more Heartless to show up, when a couple ominous soldiers began wheeling a giant creature restrained on a cart. The trio eased up, but King hid behind the trio.

“Whoa, that’s one ominous parade…” Luz gasped as she got off the bench, trying to get Eda’s attention.

“That’s no parade, kid, those are Demon Hunters; dangerous nomads who capture and sell the most powerful beasts.” Eda clarified. The demon tried to break free, but the Hunters electrified it, knocking it out and continued to push the cart. “…And that’ll happen to me if you don’t open up, Morton!” Eda shouted as she continued to bang on the shutter.

“They’ll pay for capturing my loyal subjects…” King said angrily.

“You don’t think they’ve started capturing Heartless and Nobodies, do you?” Sora asked.

Suddenly, the shutters opened up and a young witch appeared inside. “Sorry, Eda. I was up all night poison tasting, and for some reason I don’t feel great…” Morton groaned. Everyone looked at him with disappointment as he held his stomach in pain.

“I’m all outta my juice, pal.” Eda said as she handed him an empty bottle.

“Oh geez… lemme see what I can do.” Morton said as he took the empty bottle and rattled around his shelves. Luz and the trio looked back into the street to continue watching people when they noticed Willow and Gus walking around.

“Hey, there’s Willow and Gus! Looks like they’re doing some shopping as well!” Sora pointed out. Luz and the trio ran up to greet them, but when they got closer, they saw how sad they were.

“Heya friends! Wait… what’s wrong? Who hurt my babies?!” Luz demanded.

“Them…” Willow answered as she pointed down the street. When they looked to see who it was, they saw Amity talking with a bunch of other students they didn’t recognize, but they knew they were trouble if they were associated with Amity. “Amity’s having a moonlight conjuring and invited everyone but us…” Willow explained.

“And what’s worse is she keeps posting about it on her Penstagram account.” Gus said annoyed as he summoned a little scroll. As it unrolled, a picture of Amity and her friends appeared with some text underneath it.

“Penstagram… so this scroll-thing is what the map vendor meant about not needing physical maps!” Donald exclaimed as he pulled out his map.

“Say, this ‘posting’ thing looks like some kinda two-way communication with people!” Goofy pointed out.

“Can’t say I’ve heard of Penstagram, but it does sound an awful lot like Kingstagram…!” Sora said as he pulled out his Gummiphone. “Maybe it’s their version? Do you think every world has one?”

“‘It’s conjuring night. No dorks allowed.’” Luz read. “What a jerk! …What’s a moonlight conjuring?” She suddenly realized.

“You spend the night at someone’s house, telling stories, playing games…” Willow listed.

“Oh, like a slumber party! We have those!” Luz exclaimed, the trio not knowing what she’s referring to.

“Then, you being something to life with moon magic!” Willow finished explaining as she held up a book, describing the ritual of a moon conjuring.

“…Like a weird slumber party!” Luz said, still excited. The trio stared at the book in amazement.

“Moon magic, huh? I’m glad Saïx isn’t here for this.” Sora whispered to Donald and Goofy. The trio laughed amongst themselves.

“Gus and I have never been to one; you need at least three people and —” Willow began explaining.

“I’m three people! Er—we’re three people! And we’re way better than them!” Luz shouted.

“Yeah, and you’ve got the three of us as well! So that’s two three people! Double the magic, right? I’m sure all of us can figure out how to get the moon conjuring to work.” Sora said.

“Ugh, are you seriously trying to make your own moonlight conjuring, Half-a-Witch Willow?” A three-eyed girl scoffed as her group of friends approached, including Amity. “You know that won’t work, only real witches can perform it.”

“Leave her alone; it’s not her fault she was born without talent.” Amity mocked as their group walked away, laughing at the group. Willow growled as the ground began to shake, causing thorns to sprout out of the ground.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! That’s a bit much!” Sora insisted as he whacked the thorns with his Keyblade, causing it to retreat back into the ground.

“Don’t waste your time getting thorny over them, ‘cause we’re gonna have our own moonlight conjuring!” Luz insisted.

“Are you serious?! This was on my bucket list, after owning a real human bucket!” Gus said as he pulled out a piece of paper and crossed off one of the items on it.

“That’s a really specific thing to want, but I appreciate your enthusiasm!” Luz said. “C’mon, let’s go tell Eda.” Luz and the trio ran back over to Eda, who appeared to be in a heated discussion with Morton.

“Eda, we’re gonna do a moonlight conjuring with Gus and Willow so we can prove Amity wrong, so can we—” Luz began to ask.

“Not tonight, I’m heading out. I need you four to watch the house. I have many precious objects in there.” Eda dismissed them.

“Like me!” King said as he jumped up and down before Eda grabbed him by the back of the neck.

“No, you’re coming with me. I’m gonna need an extra pair of eyes looking out for pickpockets… and an extra pair of hands in case I want to pickpocket!” Eda insisted.

“Yeah, pickpocketing!” King shouted as he high-fived Eda.

“Did you get more elixirs? It’s a bad idea to go out with the curse still looming over you…” Sora asked.

“Unfortunately, Morton’s out, and going out tonight is the only way I can get more elixirs in time…” Eda sighed.

“But why do we have to stay back and guard the house? Isn’t that Hooty’s job?” Luz protested.

“You seriously believe he can guard with those shadowy, wiggly things you bring all over the place?” Eda asked, irritated.

“Okay, you’ve got a point…” Sora admitted.

“Then, maybe they can come to the house and—” Luz suggested.

“No. Besides, conjurings are dumb; sitting in a circle, holding hands. Ugh, it’s like magic for babies.” Eda said as she began to walk away, presumably to practice their pickpocketing for later tonight. Willow and Gus ran up to Luz and the trio, excited to hear their answer.

“So? What did Eda say?!” Willow insisted.

“So… umm…” Luz and the trio hesitated, not wanting to turn down their friends.

“Hey, look!” Gus gasped as he pointed towards the horizon. “The moon’s already begun rising into place! The celestial powers only align once a year!”

“Oh, I can’t believe we finally have enough friends for a moonlight conjuring! Thank you so much!” Willow prematurely thanked them. “So, did Eda say it was okay?”

“Uh… yes. Eda said yes. We can do it at the Owl House… as long as we don’t make a mess or touch anything and never bring up that we did it ever again!” Luz said nervously.

“Yes! We can do it!” Gus shouted.

“You four are the best!” Willow said as she and Gus hugged Luz and the trio.

“We’re gonna do a conjuring! We’re gonna do a conjuring!” Willow and Gus sang as they began to walk away.

“We’re in trouble, aren’t we?” Goofy asked nervously.

“Of course we are…” Donald sighed.

“Well, do you wanna tell them Eda said no?!” Luz panicked.

“Not really…” Sora admitted. “We’re gonna have to lie our way out of this again…”

“Alright, I’m all warmed up for tonight!” King said as he walked back carrying a bunch of snails and other objects in his arms.

“Yeah, it’s time we get back. I’ve got some research to do on the night market if I’m gonna figure out where to get my elixirs.” Eda said with even more snails and objects in her arms. King and Eda shoved everything they stole into her hair. “Let’s get out of here already.” She said as she opened up her staff and got on. Luz, King, and the trio got on as well, and together they flew back to the Owl House.

“Hey, Eda?” Sora asked. “Have you tried making elixirs on your own?”

“Of course I have!” Eda quickly shouted, insulted. “I can’t figure out all the ingredients, and the results were… ugly.” She and King shuttered remembering the terrible results.

“Ingredients, hm…?” Donald pondered. Sora smacked the back of head, knowing exactly what he was thinking.

Once they returned to the Owl House, Eda went rummaging through her books to find any information about the night market, King went through multiple naps all over the house, and Luz and the trio tried to avoid confronting Eda for the rest of the day, which wasn’t very difficult with how distracted she was. Feathers littered the floor as Eda’s curse slowly worsened, making everyone in the house more nervous.

Night fell when Eda found out about where the night market was. She quickly grabbed her cowl, staff, and King, and began to make her way out of the house. “Luz, you’re in charge while I’m out. Make sure Hooty doesn’t get into any trouble.” She explained.

“Hoot hoot! I don’t need a babysitter; I’m a big boy house!” Hooty opened the door/himself to yell at Eda.

“Wait, why is Luz in charge? We’re the ones with magical weapons!” Sora asked, confused. “…No offense, Luz!”

“No, my thoughts exactly!” Luz admitted.

“You three’ve been getting very nosey recently, at least more than usual. I know Luz can’t stop you, but she’s more of the voice-of-reason than any of you three.” Eda shot back

“Well, either way, you can count on us! We’d never betray your hard-earned trust!” Luz laughed nervously as she put her hood on.

“You’re acting suspicious again. You’re doing that thing where you hide in your hoodie.” Eda pointed out, skeptical.

“Meow I’m not.” Luz said, muffled by her hoodie. “Wait, where’s King? I thought he was gonna go with you.” She asked as she took off her hood.

“He’s right here.” Eda said as she opened up her cowl, revealing King asleep in a harness attached to Eda. “His little body just goes weightless when he conks out. Look at this!” She swayed side-to-side, causing King’s unconscious limbs to sway as well.

“Aw, he’s so dangly!” Luz gasped as she played with his unconscious limbs as well.

“Man, King sure can sleep for a long time.” Sora said.

“You’re one to talk...” Donald rolled his eyes.

“Well, so much for pickpocketing tonight.” Goofy pointed out.

“Anyway, really going now.” Eda said as she walked out the door. Luz and the trio followed her out to say goodbye, but stopped when she turned around and faced them again. “And listen, if any of you mess up the house, I will never trust you again.” She threatened. “No pressure! Bye!” She got on her staff and flew off, leaving them in front of the house, terrified.

“Should we really be doing this?” Sora asked, worried.

“Willow and Gus are counting on us; we’ve got to do this.” Luz reassured them and herself. “Okay, coast is clear. You can come out now.” She called out. A nearby bush began to glow and the leaves burst out, revealing Willow and Gus hiding inside of it.

“Ta-da! I’m a sneaky sneakster!” Willow laughed.

“I’ve got leaves in my pants… and I like it!” Gus said.

“Alright then, let’s get this moonlight conjuring started!” Sora exclaimed.

“Company! Hooray! Finally someone to listen to my stories!” Hooty said happily. He began telling a story, but the group ended up ignoring him and just went inside the house.

“Welcome to the living room!” Luz gestured to the room. “We call it that because it’s technically living! Look, you can see the walls breathing!”

“Enchanting!” Willow gasped as she walked up to the wall, watching it pulsate.

“It’s also technically where the three of us live.” Sora said as he pointed to the couch.

“Look at all these human treasures!” Gus shouted as he rummaged around the various human collectables. “And actual humans!” He gasped as he found a skull.

“…How long have we been sleeping with that?” Donald asked, suddenly worried.

“We’ve got snacks, we’ve got music!” Luz gestured to the kitchen and a strange device that played music on disks by scratching them. The song that started playing was actually just scratching and screaming noises.

“We’ve got a bucket!” Gus shouted as he placed a bucket on his head.

“Sounds like another task off your list!” Goofy said happily.

“And best of all, we’ve got actual friends to do the conjuring with! This is so exciting!” Willow said in anticipation.

“So how does this conjuring stuff work?” Luz asked.

“Well first, we find something to animate. Since it’s our first time, we should pick something meaningful, something beautiful.” Willow explained as she looked longingly at a bouquet of flowers.

“Something beautiful… I wish I still had the charm Kairi gave me…” Sora sulked.

“How about this strangely buff little man?” Gus asked, holding a small, muscular figurine. He squeezed it, causing it to say, “I’m half beef, half buff!” The trio couldn’t help but laugh, thinking of Hercules.

“Yes! He’ll work perfectly!” Luz said. The trio nodded in agreement.

“That’s not exactly what I meant by ‘beautiful’…” Willow protested. Gus became disappointed and started to tear up, making Willow feel bad. “Okay, buff boy it is.” She admitted.

“Tonight he shall be risen!” Gus shouted in excitement. Everyone repeated the cheer after him.

“So how do we get started?” Sora asked.

“According to the conjuring books I’ve read, we first place the object we want to animate in the center and all hold hands around it.” Willow explained. They placed the figurine in the center of the room and sat around it, holding each other’s hands. “Next, we close our eyes and say the incantation to make a connection with the doll.” She said.

“Figurine.” Gus corrected, annoyed.

“Moonlight, we call, we sing. Moonlight, take this chance. Moonlight, come tie the string. Moonlight, start the dance!” Willow and Gus began to chant. Luz and the trio had no idea what the chance was and tried to copy what they were saying, but failed miserably. As they chanted, a light blue shockwave bursted out around them, extinguishing all the lights in the room. Once the incantation was finished, they opened their eyes and looked at the figurine.

“Did it work?” Sora asked.

“It should’ve. That’s your cue, little man.” Gus said as he poked the figurine. Suddenly, the entire house began to shake uncontrollably, sending objects flying across the room and scattering the ground on the ground. When the house stopped shaking, Everyone stood back up in pain, wondering what just happened.

“Is that part of the moonlight conjuring?” Goofy rubbed his head.

“What was that?!” Donald shouted.

“Did the entire house just hiccup?!” Luz asked, worried.

“ _ That’s _ what you call a hiccup?!” Sora shouted. “What’ll happen if it sneezes?!”

“Little buff guy, what did you do?” Gus asked as he squeezed the figurine again. All the figurine said was, “A real man never takes accountability!”

“No… I think we might’ve animated the house by accident!” Willow guessed.

“The house?!” Luz and the trio panicked. Everyone ran outside, hoping that Willow was wrong, but immediately stopped when they saw the house was in the air. Suddenly, it started to walk on its own, making its way towards the cliff.

“The house really  _ did _ come to life!” Sora shouted in despair.

“Hooty?! Hooty, you have to stop!!” Luz begged.

“By the power of moonlight, I have risen. Hoot hoot!” Hooty shouted hypnotically, his eyes glowing bright blue.

“He must be in some kind of trance!” Gus guessed. The house ran into some trees, knocking everyone off balance and causing Gus to fall off the edge. Luz and Gus quickly grabbed his hands and caught him.

“Guys, our magic must’ve spread through the house instead of the doll!” Willow shouted.

“Figurine!” Gus clarified again, despite being in a life-threatening situation.

“Hooty, stop!” Luz begged again, but Hooty gave no response.

“Luz! Willow! Take our hands!” Sora and Donald extended their arms to them. Once Luz and Willow grabbed on, Goofy grabbed onto Sora and Donald’s hands, and together they all pulled to get Gus back on solid ground again. However, once they all grabbed each other’s hands, a light blue aura appeared around them and the house stopped moving right at the edge of the cliff, but it began to lightly shake again. They took the opportunity to pull Gus back up and let go of each other’s hands when he was safe, causing the aura to disappear.

“The house actually stopped moving…” Sora said in amazement as he stared off at the sea.

“How’d we manage to do that?” Gus asked, confused.

“Wait, let’s hold hands again.” Luz said. Everyone joined hands again, causing the aura to reappear around them. The house slowly began to back away from the cliff, but it began to shake more vigorously.

“We’re controlling it with the power of friendship! Oh, and the moon.” Willow said.

“I use the power of friendship all the time, but this has never happened before. Pretty sure it’s just the moon this time.” Sora agreed.

“This is amazing! What do we do now?!” Gus exclaimed.

“On the one hand, we should probably stay put.” Luz said, scared of Eda’s threat.

“On the other hand, we’ve got a giant walking house and should totally take it on a joyride!” Gus argued.

Luz looked up at the sun, which was directly above them and slowly began to set, giving them plenty of time. “Okay, we can go out, but we gotta be back before the moon sets or Eda will kill us.” Luz agreed.

They tried to get the house to start moving, but it was standing still and shook uncontrollably. They looked at Hooty to see what was wrong, and his eyes were glowing brighter than ever. Suddenly, the blue in his eyes turned dark and a shockwave of darkness shot out, knocking everyone on the ground again and losing their grips. A large ball of darkness shot out from Hooty and passed over everyone, startling them as it went over the cliff. They looked over the cliff to see what it was, when suddenly the ball of darkness flew back up over the edge, roughly the size of the house. The ball of darkness broke apart as two giant owl wings spread out, detached from its body. Its feathers were bright yellow at the base, brown around the center, and black at the tip. Its feet were shaped like lightning bolts with razor-sharp talons. It had yellow glowing eyes and a protruding beak with a jagged mouth extending out past its beak, with its head detached from its body, which had a giant Heartless symbol on it. It opened its beak and hooted menacingly and flew off past the house, leaving behind a trail of feathers that electrocuted whatever they landed on before vanishing. The group stared at the giant Heartless as it got farther away from them.

“What was that thing?!” Willow and Gus shouted, terrified.

“I didn’t see which symbol it had, but I think that one was a Heartless?” Luz guessed.

“Yeah, but we’ve never seen a Heartless like that one before.” Goofy said.

“But what did it come from? Who’s heart could have made something like that?!” Donald asked, confused.

“We should go after that Heartless. There’s not telling how much damage that thing can cause…” Sora suggested while trying to count the number of electrified trees below.

“Okay, but we need to be careful that it doesn’t destroy the house. We need to make sure it— Hooty?!” Luz gasped once she saw him. Hooty’s face was completely white with his eyes and mouth gone, replaced with the Nobody symbol. Hooty’s legs were also white and his toes were splayed out like the cross on the top of the symbol. “What happened to you?!” Luz cried out.

“Hooty’s been turned into a Nobody!” The trio shouted, completely surprised.

“But how did that happen?! You told us Nobodies are people without hearts!” Gus pointed out.

“No… was that Heartless we just saw Hooty’s Heartless?!” Willow guessed. Everyone stared at the direction the Heartless flew off to in horror.

“But how did we release Hooty’s heart? Sora didn’t do anything with his Keyblade.” Goofy asked, confused.

“Something must’ve gone wrong with the moonlight conjuring!” Donald quacked angrily.

“We have to hunt that Heartless down, or Eda will  _ definitely _ kill us!” Sora panicked.

Everyone grabbed hands again to gain control of Hooty, but once they did, light began to glow around him. It enveloped him, and once it vanished, Hooty was back to his normal self, with his eyes still glowing light blue. Everyone stared at Hooty, absolutely baffled.

“What the… he’s back to normal now?!” Luz gasped.

“So wait, was the one we just saw not his Heartless then?” Gus asked.

“It happened when we grabbed hands again…” Donald noted.

“Wait… I think I know what it is!” Sora shouted. “The three of us will let go, and you three should hold hands.” Luz, Willow, and Gus agreed and the three of them joined hands as the trio let go. They looked back at Hooty, and he became enveloped in darkness again, and once it vanished, Hooty was a Nobody again, but this time his Nobody symbol was glowing light blue.

“Now he’s back to a Nobody!” Goofy pointed out.

“But he looked normal a second ago!” Willow noted.

“Okay then…” Sora sighed. “So, now you three let go, and we’ll join hands.” Luz, Willow, and Gus let go of each other’s hands as the trio joined hands. Hooty became enveloped in light again, and once it vanished, Hooty was back to his normal self again. However, he quickly began wandering around again.

“Just as I thought!” Sora shouted. “You three are able to control Hooty’s actions, and we’re able to control his powers as a Nobody!” They all joined hands again, and Hooty was under control while looking like himself.

“So wait, he’s still a Nobody even though he looks like himself?” Luz asked.

“You see, there’s more than one kind of Nobody. Those white, slithery ones with the symbols are normal Nobodies. But if a Nobody has a strong enough will, it keeps its original form. It looks like Hooty isn’t strong enough to keep his original form, but can with a combination of us and the moonlight conjuring.” Sora explained.

“He’s still in that weird trance, but at least he looks normal again.” Gus said.

“But doesn’t that mean when the moonlight conjuring is over, he’ll just look like a Nobody again?” Willow asked.

“Which is why we need to hurry and get Hooty’s heart back before Eda returns and steals ours!” Luz panicked.

“But how’re we gonna track down that Heartless? The Boiling Isles is massive and we don’t have much time to find it!” Goofy worried.

“Actually, it made a nice trail for us!” Donald pointed down below where the feathers landed, the ground around it singed. “We can use it to track the Heartless!”

“Then we have no time to lose! Everyone, let’s hunt down that Heartless!” Luz rallied. Everyone joined hands and controlled the house to follow the trail the giant Heartless left behind.

“So what are we gonna call this one, fellers?” Goofy asked.

“Wait… you name these yourself?” Gus exclaimed.

“Well, yeah.” Sora said. “We can’t just run around calling everything ‘The Heartless.’ It makes it really hard to communicate in battle when nothing has a name.”

“Ooh! Ooh! Can I name it? Can I?!” Luz shouted, bouncing up and down. “It’s gotta be something cool! Something mystical… like, The Galvanic Strigidae…!”

“The what?” Goofy mumbled.   


“Sure, if I remember that in the next two seconds.” Donald said, for once sounding equally confused.

“Then I’ll just say it over and over until you remember! Galvanic Strigidae! Galvanic Strigidae! GAL-VAN-ICー”

This went on for twenty minutes, while they continued to follow the trail into the nearby forest. However, the trail ended at a clearing with many trees knocked over and singed.

“What the… what happened here?!” Sora shouted, finally ending their frankly insane and chaotic chanting of the name Galvanic Strigidae.

“It looks like there was some sort of struggle here.” Willow noted as she lamented the destroyed trees.

“But a struggle against what? Another Heartless maybe?” Gus guessed.

“But the trail of feathers ends here! Does that mean it lost the struggle?” Donald asked.

“If it did lose, where did its heart go? Maybe it’s somewhere close by.” Goofy said.

“There has to be some other clue nearby, right? It couldn’t have just vanished. We’d better keep looking around here.” Luz suggested. Everyone nodded in agreement and continued looking around.

As they continued their search around the forest, they noticed someone walking around by themself. It was the three-eyed monster girl from earlier.

“Hey, isn’t that Boscha?” Willow asked.

“You’re right! She’s the one who made fun of us.” Gus said.

“I don’t think she’ll know anything about where the Heartless flew off to.” Goody pointed out.

“Not like we want her help anyway.” Donald grumbled.

Boscha turned around and noticed the house, staring at it in confusion. “Looks like she noticed us… What do we do now?” Sora asked.

“I know what to do.” Luz smiled mischievously. “Gus, can you make my voice louder somehow?”

“I sure can!” Gus said as he summoned a megaphone.

“Oh, this is going to be good. She’s not afraid of speaking her mind.” Willow said in anticipation.

“Hey, you! You should stop being so mean to people. You’re kind of a jerk.” Luz shouted through the megaphone. The group laughed at her insults.

“A talking house giving me a lecture? Ew. Whatever, I’ll just TP you like I did with the rest of the neighborhood.” Boscha shrugged off.

“But don’t you see? I’m no ordinary house!” Luz shouted. The trio joined hands and took control of Hooty, charging them closer to Boscha and scaring her off. Everyone laughed as she ran away from the house.

“I’ve never pranked anyone before! And now I have a taste for it…” Gus said deviously.

“I’ll be honest, it felt great getting back at her for making fun of you!” Sora said.

“Hey, why don’t we follow her to Amity’s house and show off our conjuring? That way, we can show them who really has no talent!” Willow suggested.

“Actually, I’m starting to think we should head back.” Luz said timidly as she looked up at the moon, which was beginning to descend.

“Luz is right, we’d better hurry and find the Galvanic Strigidae, or at the very least put the house back where it belongs.” Sora agreed.

Gus summoned his scroll again to check the time when it suddenly glowed and vibrated. “Looks like Amity updated her Penstagram.” He said as he showed the group a new photo of Amity, Boscha, and other friends.

“Shout out to my fellow witches, #HumansCanBiteIt?!” Luz gasped as she read it out loud.

“Unbelievable! What’s their deal with us?!” Sora shouted.

“Let’s show them up!” Luz chanted. Willow and Gus quickly joined in, but the trio were hesitant. “C’mon, don’t you three want to get back at them as well?”

“It would be fun getting back at them for being such jerks.” Donald admitted.

“We’re just worried about Eda returning and finding out what we did to the house.” Goofy said.

“Yeah, she probably wouldn’t be too thrilled about her house disappearing on her.” Gus admitted.

“But we know how to get to Amity’s house, and by controlling Hooty, we can get there in no time.” Willow explained.

“We haven’t found any other clues about where the Galvanic Strigidae flew off to. Maybe we can find some more clues about it in town.” Luz pointed out.

“Well, if it won’t take long, we can hurry and show them up. But we have to keep looking for it afterwards, got it?” Sora asked. Everyone nodded in agreement. “Okay, then let’s go and show them we really are witches!” He cheered. Everyone joined hands and took control of Hooty again, now heading into town.

The town was mostly quiet at night, very few street vendors were around, the streets were mostly clear, save for a handful of people walking around, and thankfully never ran into any guards. They did their best to cause as little property damage as possible, but that didn’t stop the townspeople from running away in fear. They tried to apologize along the way, but they’re pretty sure no one actually heard them. Finally, they reached a large, secluded house with a gate labeled “Blight Manor”.

“Look, Amity’s house!” Willow pointed out.

“Wow, that’s a pretty big house… it might even be bigger than this house.” Luz observed.

“Blight. So she has two names: Amity and Blight. I guess it’s like you, Noceda.” Sora noted.

“Uh, Blight’s just her last name. Her first name is just Amity.” Luz explained.

"… Oh. That’s… a thing, I guess.” Sora apologized in embarrassment.

“Now, it’s time to show them what a real conjuring looks like!” Gus said eagerly.

They made their way closer to Amity’s house, but were stopped when something attached itself to the house, shaking everything and causing the group to let go of each other’s hands.

“What was that?” Willow asked, worried. They looked around to see what caused them to stop moving.

“Some sort of rope is holding us down!” Sora said as he found the rope.

“But what shot the rope, and why did they want to stop us?” Gus asked.

“Uh, is that a giant crossbow?!” Luz asked as she saw it line up in front of them. It fired its arrow, soaring over the house and attaching into the ground, causing another rope to pin down the house. Sora summoned his Keyblade and jumped off the house to try and cut the rope in front of him, but the Demon Hunter from earlier jumped into the air and protected the rope with its own massive sword, catching Sora off guard and knocking him back to the house. The Demon Hunter jumped onto the house, standing in front of the group.

“Knock knock.” The Demon Hunter intimidated them as he brandished his sword in front of the group.

Sora stood back up and tried to slash at the Demon Hunter, but he drew a magic circle, causing his hand to surge with electricity. He blocked Sora with his sword and grabbed onto the Keyblade with his electrified hand, shocking Sora and knocking him unconscious. Donald summoned his staff and cast Fire at the Demon Hunter, but he sliced through it with ease and shocked Donald, knocking him out as well. Goofy summoned his shield and stood in front of Luz, Willow, and Gus, and was able to deflect the Demon Hunter’s electricity away. However, the Demon Hunter simply kicked Goofy’s shield to the side and shocked him, knocking him out as well. The Demon Hunter stared at Luz, Willow, and Gus, who simply raised their hands and surrendered.

“Wise choice.” The Demon Hunter laughed. He put his sword away and dispelled the electricity before pulling out a long piece of rope and tying everyone together. Once restrained, the Demon Hunter threw them into the house and began working with other Demon Hunters to load the house onto a cart and drag it off somewhere.

“What do we do now?!” Luz panicked. “Who knows what’ll happen to Hooty, or even us!”

“Sora? Donald? Goofy? Are you three okay?” Willow asked, worried. They gave no response. “If they were awake, they could cut us free…”

“I know, I’ll bite my way through the rope!” Gus said. He began to chew on the rope, but was hardly making any progress.

“That’ll take too long! There’s gotta be something else we can do to save Hooty! Wait… that’s it, Hooty!” Luz began to kick on the door. “Hooty! Hooty!! You have to wake up and get us outta here!!”

“If you want this to end as you say, three of you must hold hands. That is the only way…” Despite reverting back to his Nobody form, Hooty responded in an eerie voice whispered in the wind and the house rumbled.

“¡Oye, no me hable así! We can’t even reach each other’s hands, tied up like this and with half of us unconscious!” Luz shouted as she continued to kick the door. “Willow, can you help me with Hooty?”

“I’m sorry, Luz. You shouldn’t ask me to help with anything… All I’ve done is gotten us into mess after mess…” Willow sighed. Luz tried to cheer her up, but was interrupted when the house stopped moving, knocking everyone over and squishing the trio onto the ground.

“Ugh… what happened…?” Sora mumbled as he began to wake up along with Donald and Goofy.

“I think the house stopped moving…” Luz guessed.

“I know my stomach hasn’t…” Gus groaned in pain.

The door opened and the Demon Hunter stepped inside. He laughed as he grabbed the group and threw them outside of the house in front of more Demon Hunters, at the edge of another cliff. “Take the house and rip out the demon. We can sell it to restaurants as exotic meat.” The demon Hunter instructed.

“No! Hooty would taste terrible!” Luz shouted.

“They don’t have to know that. It’ll still catch a hefty price.” The Demon Hunter laughed.

“Man, two hauls in one night! We’ll be set for months after this!” The second Demon Hunter cackled.

“Wait, second? What else did you capture?” Luz asked. They looked around to see if they could find what demon they captured, and sure enough, another cart was next to Hooty with a giant owl creature restrained.

“Hooty’s Heartless! It’s here as well!” Sora shouted.

“That’s why there was no trail at the struggle!” Donald realized.

Hooty and his Heartless began to struggle in an attempt to fight and defeat each other, causing the Demon Hunters to lose focus of the group.

“We have to restore Hooty before they destroy each other!” Goofy worried.

“You worms aren’t interfering at all! Throw them over the cliff!” The Demon Hunter leader ordered. Another Demon Hunter laughed as he dragged them closer to the edge of the cliff. The trio tried to summon their weapons and break free, but couldn’t under such tight constraints.

“All righty, kids. Here’s the end of your short little lives.” The Demon Hunter mocked as he continued to push them towards the cliff.

“Waitwaitwait!” Gus pleaded. “Is this really what you wanna be doing with your life? Tossing kids off cliffs?”

“Actually, yes. It's been my dream since I was a boy. I was a strange child.” The Demon Hunter admitted. He laughed as he pushed them off the cliff, the group plummeting towards the rapids down below. Miraculously, their rope was stuck onto a tree root, but it wouldn’t hold them forever.

“If we break free now, we’ll just fall into the water…” Donald noted, even though he would be the only one safe.

“I know you’re great at Flowmotion, Sora, but I don’t think you’re good enough to bring all of us back up.” Goody worried.

“Yeah, but we’ve got another problem. The moon’s setting quickly, and if we don’t hurry, we won’t get Hooty back in time…” Sora said as he stared off in the distance, the moon beginning to approach the horizon.

“Well, if we're not killed now, we will be when Eda finds out about the house…” Luz pointed out.

“Luz, Sora, I'm so sorry… You two just wanted to turn back and fix this mess, but I just had to show off to Amity. The truth is… she and I used to be friends…” Willow admitted.

“What?! You were?!” Luz and the trio gasped in amazement.

“We played together as kids, but when she got her magical powers and I didn't, she stopped hanging out with me…” Willow reminisced.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but is now really the best time?!” Gus interrupted them as the tree branch began to break.

“I just wanted to prove to her that I was a powerful witch too…” Willow confessed.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a powerful witch or not, you’re still going to be our friends, no matter what!” Sora reassured her.

“Besides, what you said is completely ridiculous! You helped bring a house to life! Amity doesn't know what she's talking about! Next to Eda, you're the most powerful witch I know!” Luz shouted, making Willow blush. “N-no offense, Gus.” She quickly apologized.

“No, not at all. I know what I'm about.” Gus smiled.

“Hey, what about the three of us?!” Sora said, pretending to be offended.

“Okay, okay, you three are the most powerful witches I know from  _ outside _ the Boiling Isles.” Luz said. The group couldn’t help but laugh, but immediately stopped when the branch continued to break.

“This branch can’t hold us much longer!” Gus began to panic.

Willow looked at the wall and noticed another root sticking out of it just barely out of reach. “If I could just reach that root…” She tried to grab onto it, but couldn’t reach with her hands still restrained. The group began to swing back and forth, causing the branch to break even more, but they managed to get close enough to the root. “Gotcha!” She shouted as she grabbed onto the root, causing it to grow wildly. More roots began to grow out of the wall and even a massive leaf platform, which managed to catch them just as the branch broke, catching them. With barely any room, Sora summoned his Keyblade and cut the rope, freeing everyone.

“Alright, now let’s get Hooty back and defeat that Heartless!” Luz rallied. Everyone cheered as the platform raised them up to the ledge.

As they got closer, they heard the Demon Hunters talking among each other. The last thing they were able to hear was, “They were children, Tom.”

“We may be children, but we're also witches. Powerful ones!” Willow shouted as the group rose from the cliff, catching the Demon Hunters by surprise. Thorns rose from the edge of the cliff and shot out of the ground, entangling the Demon Hunters.

While they were distracted, the group ran over to Hooty, who was frantically trying to attack the Galvanic Strigidae. Once they got back on, Sora climbed up and cut the ropes, freeing Hooty. However, Hooty stood up on his own and his talons twisted and shaped into a giant sword. He swung it at the Galvanic Strigidae, launching it into the nearby trees, cutting its ropes in the process. The Galvanic Strigidae rose out of the trees and hooted menacingly again and flew away from the cliff.

“No! We don’t have enough time to let it get away again!” Sora shouted as he looked back at the moon, which was beginning to disappear behind the horizon.

“Then come on, let’s hunt down that Heartless once and for all, then return the house!” Luz rallied. Everyone joined hands, took control of Hooty, and chased after the Galvanic Strigidae.

They were following behind it for a while, but they were too slow to catch up with it. Its head was turned around 180 degrees and watching the group chase after it. It would occasionally turn its body around as well and cross its wings, launching electric feathers at the group when it spread its wings out again. The group dodged most of the feathers, but some of them got lodged into the ground and parts of the house.

They chased the Galvanic Strigidae into a small market in the middle of the woods. The group did their best to avoid any people and vendors, but the Galvanic Strigidae made it more difficult with its electric feathers. It launched its feathers at Hooty’s feet, and the only way they could dodge it was to step on one of the vendors and destroy it.

“Sorry, mister!” The group quickly apologized as they continued to chase after the Galvanic Strigidae.

They continued to chase after it, but they weren’t gaining on it, and worse they were running out of time. When it seemed like they would be unable to catch up to it, a large pillar of fire bursted out of the ground. Because the Galvanic Strigidae was busy looking at the group, it didn’t see the pillar of fire and flew directly into it, catching its wings on fire and falling on the ground.

“What just happened?!” The group gasped in amazement. They looked around to see what caused that, thinking the Demon Hunters were back, when they saw Eda and King flying on her staff next to the house and landed next to the group. The group stared at them, realizing they’ve been caught.

“Wha—  _ you’re _ the ones doing this to my house?! What did I tell you about messing with my house?!” Eda barked.

“Why is Hooty walking?! He was terrifying enough before!” King cried out from Eda’s shoulder.

“Look Eda, we’re really sorry for what we did to Hooty, but right now, we have to stop that Heartless before the moon sets!” Luz shouted. Eda looked back at the Heartless and the group, then closed her eyes and sighed.

“Fine, but don’t think you’re getting out of this!” Eda reluctantly agreed. “So, what’re we gonna do?” She asked. Sora and Luz let go of each other’s hands and offered them to Eda and King. She laughed and grabbed onto Luz and King’s hands while King grabbed onto Eda and Sora’s hands, everyone glowing light blue.

The Galvanic Strigidae rose back into the air, the flames extinguished. It opened both its beak and mouth, revealing its sharp fangs and letting out a combination of a hoot and a roar as it began to glow yellow and surged with electricity.

“You’ve tried moonlight power, now it’s time I try friendship power! … That also uses the moon!” Sora said. Everyone looked at him with confusion while Donald and Goofy exchanged nervous glances. Sora closed his eyes and breathed deeply while everyone followed him.

“Do you feel it, the moon’s power?” Sora chanted. Everyone followed his lead as they began to float in the air and glow even brighter.

“The moon shines down!!” Everyone shouted at once. They opened their eyes and their auras changed from a light blue to a dark blue, including Hooty and the entire house, as a shockwave shot out around them. They all stared at the Galvanic Strigidae with determination. It roared in retaliation and charged towards the group, [ready to fight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf6JgdUHq78).

The Galvanic Strigidae crossed its wings and extended out again, shooting more feathers and aiming for the group this time. Hooty’s limbs changed back into a Nobody’s and twisted one of his talons into a sword again. He swung his leg at the feathers, cutting them apart and causing the electricity to discharge. The Galvanic Strigidae swooped upwards and tried to grab the group with its surging talons. Hooty raised his leg sword in front of the group, forcing the Galvanic Strigidae to grab onto the sword with its talons. Electricity surged throughout his whole body, and even the group could feel it. Hooty thrusted his head outward to twist and shapeshift it into a spear, which he used to swipe stab into the Galvanic Strigidae before throwing it up into the air. It flipped around in the air after being thrown before regaining its balance and floated high above the house.

It spun around in the air, its wings glowing bright yellow as electricity began to get stored, before it threw its detached wings from its body towards the group. The group backed away from the first wing, which caused a giant lightning bolt to strike the wing as soon as it got lodged into the ground and created a shockwave around it. Because they were so close to the wing, the giant lightning bolt knocked Hooty onto the ground. The Galvanic Strigidae then threw its second wing at the hoppled Hooty. They couldn’t get back up in time, so he extended his talons and grabbed onto the first wing, which was no longer charged with electricity, and threw it at the second wing, knocking it to the side. The second wing landed in the woods, far enough away so as to not affect the group. The Galvanic Strigidae began to divebomb the group, but they were able to stand back up and prepared for it to get closer. The Galvanic Strigidae flew up just before it hit the ground, gliding across it trying to take out Hooty’s legs, but they jumped above it. Hooty twisted his legs together and shot them down, striking the Galvanic Strigidae’s back and causing it to slide against the ground.

The Galvanic Strigidae rose back up and roared in rage, calling its wings back to its side. Its wings connected with each other and the tips of its feathers flowed brightly with electricity. It charged at the group, swinging its wings around wildly, causing lightning bolts to shoot out and launching feathers with each swing. They were able to dodge the initial swings and lightning bolts, but the feathers were able to strike Hooty, causing the group to feel more surges of electricity. Desperate to stop the Galvanic Strigidae from launching its feathers with each swing, Hooty shifted and transformed his head into a sword and clashed against its wings. However, the power in its wing blades were far worse than the feathers it shot out, causing everyone great pain. Hooty and the group kneeled down after taking such a powerful surge, his sword head falling limply on the ground. However, they noticed that only the edge of the Galvanic Strigidae’s wings were electrified and the back of them were completely normal.

When it tried to swing again, they dodged its wings and Hooty struck the back of them, breaking them apart and lodging them into the ground, their electricity dissipating. Defenseless, they relentlessly attacked the Galvanic Strigidae, swinging his head sword and transforming his legs into spears to stab at it. In pain, the Galvanic Strigidae called its wings back to its body and surged them with electricity, but they barely glowed at all. It tried attacking with its wings first, but the electricity was so weak that when Hooty swung his face-sword at them, he was barely hurt by the electricity and overpowered it. Hooty slashed upward with his sword face, launching the Galvanic Strigidae into the sky. Hooty jumped into the air after it and stabbed downward with his spear talons, slamming it into the ground. Hooty landed in front of the Galvanic Strigidae, ready and waiting to see what it would do. The Galvanic Strigidae slowly rose back into the air, shaking greatly before its dislocated pieces fell apart onto the ground, lifeless.

The Galvanic Strigidae’s body faded away as a large crystal heart appeared and began to rise into the sky. Sora let go of their hands, summoned his Keyblade, and shot out a beam of light at the heart, stopping it from escaping. The heart soared in front of Hooty and the two of them combined, restoring Hooty back to normal. They looked at the moon and saw that it was almost completely gone. They quickly controlled Hooty back to where the house was before it was too late.

They made it back and set the house back where it was just in time as the moon set. The group stopped glowing and fell onto the ground, exhausted from controlling the house while in a state of rage.

“Did… did we do it…?” Luz panted.

“Ugh… is the world spinning, or is it just me?” Hooty asked. “Just a little house humor! I think…”

“We… we did it! Hooty’s recompleted!” Sora faintly cheered.

“Sorry for everything we’ve done to you…” Luz apologized.

“It’s okay. I’m just glad to be included!” Hooty said.

“You… you’re all so busted!” Eda shouted as she struggled to stand back up. “You held a moonlight conjuring and animated my house!!”

“We betrayed your trust in us… we’re really sorry…” Sora whimpered as he helped Luz strand back up.

“No! Don’t punish any of them!” Willow begged as she stood up and got in front of Luz and the trio. “We’re the ones who pushed them to do the conjuring!”

“If you’re gonna eat me, just do it now!” Gus said timidly as he stood beside Willow.

“Hey, you don’t have to do this for us.” Luz tried to talk them out of defending them.

“We should’ve told you two the truth about Eda not wanting any company or moonlight conjuring.” Sora confessed.

“You mean you went through all the trouble of holding a moonlight conjuring just for us?!” Gus gasped.

“We do have to do this. You’ve done so much for us, it’s only fair for us to help you out.” Willow smiled back at them.

“Then you’re all guilty, so you'll all be punished by cleaning my house top to bottom!” Eda ordered as she picked up King, who was still lying on the ground. She drew a circle in the air, creating multiple cleaning supplies.

“Oh, that could’ve been a lot worse!” Donald sighed. Luz elbowed him to be quiet.

“Well, it’s the least we could do after everything we’ve done.” Goody admitted.

“And one more thing…” Eda said threateningly. The group stared at her, terrified of what she was going to say next. “That was totally amazing, and I'm so joining you for next year's conjuring!” She said happily. The group cheered and high fives each other, proud to hear Eda’s praise. “Now get to work!” She ordered.

Everyone made their way inside the house. Eda and King laid on the couch and rested while the six of them took the cleaning supplies and started fixing the house. It took them a long time, but they eventually finished and the house looked as if nothing had ever happened to it in the first place. The sun was out when they finished, but Willow and Gus were too exhausted to walk back home. Sora offered the couch to sleep on, but when they went downstairs they saw Eda and King asleep on it instead. So instead, everyone decided to sleep in Luz’s room, saying it was like one of the sleepovers she has back home. The trio fell asleep very quickly after a tiring but fun moonlight conjuring with their friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: I hope you’ve all enjoyed another chapter! I’m very sorry that this chapter has come out so late. I’ve had to deal with finals, packing up to leave college, and ended up resting for a while by playing Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory, but now I’m back to uploading every other week! This wasn’t a very difficult chapter to write, but I wanted to make it different enough from what happened in the original episode, I ended up creating my very own Heartless for this chapter and I hope it turned out well! The giant owl is centered around using electricity, which is the type of magic that Eda uses the most. It was also very fun writing Hooty with the stretching and morphing powers of a Nobody, which for the most part he already has. Along with going back to a normal uploading schedule, I’ll be making some edits to the previous chapters and making lists of some references I made in each chapter. Thank you all for being so patient with me and I look forward to seeing you in the next chapter!

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: I hope whoever’s reading this enjoyed my story! I doubt many people will actually read this because it deals with two different series, and Kingdom Hearts can be very complicated. I also know that this chapter was extremely long (about 10,000 words) but I’ll try my best to make all other chapters not as long. I also know that there were some sections in this story that were very similar, if not the same as the show. In later chapters, there will be more sections that will be different from the show. I also plan to have other chapters that take place between episodes in the show. My plan is to try to make a chapter every other weekend. However, I am starting college real soon, so I will try my best to hold myself accountable to my schedule. Regardless of what happens, I really hope you all enjoyed my strange story and I hope you stay tuned for later chapters!


End file.
